Words for 8/11

Blood and Black Fires

 

And this is not a poem

 

I smell blood and black fire! Blood and black fire!

I see/hear an American mother crying. I see a father with a sign.

 

"You took my son away from me! You know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many!"

 

Michael Brown’s mother wept out, said,

Weeping in the showed-me Missouri

Amorality of the television screen:

 

 "Because you bring them down to this type of level where they feel they don't got nothing to live for anyway! (They feel) they gonna try to take me out anyway!"

 

Weeping in the showed-me Missouri

Near the mighty Mississippi, Michael Brown’s mother

Authorized grief to bring her words to thee,

Old put out the sun god, put out the moon god,

Put out the universe god.

 

 

And the big animal wearing the badge of authority called

All the little animals wearing no authority to be angry,

Just rudely,grassrootly nude in the no-clothing of angry,

Running and grabbing and shouting ancient sonics –-

Out of their minds but in yours----

The big animal called all the little animals

Washed in the blood of the Lamb’s confusion

 

“Anymules. Fucking anymules,”

Using the authority of his authority ,

Justifying, certifying, sanctifying

The sport the god of violence has with men.

 

Try to write down as many of the signs as you can,

Try to get as many of the people’s documents as you can.

Slaughter us with remembering this is not a modest proposal

In forty-one Baraka verses which are also curses,

This is not a proposal for anybody’s death, this is not a poem.

This is not a retold how somebody blue/blew up American again.

 

I smell blood and black fire! Blood and black fire!

I see /hear an American mother crying. A son dying. I see a father with a sign.

I remember since before eternity what the god of violence ordains.

 

And this is not a poem.

This is a eulogy for a dead rainbow.

 

LET THE SHIT HIT THE FAN.

I SMELL BLACK FIRE AND BLOOD

AND BLACK BLOOD AND FIRE

AND THE FINALITY THAT IS THE GENESIS.

 

AND WILL THE FURIOUS FLOWER  BLOOM ON THE GRAVE OF MICHAEL BROWN?

 

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.    August 11, 2014