Thursday, April 23, 2020

April Is National Poetry Month!


April Is National Poetry Month!

This poem appeared in The Onxy Informer in 1981. Today, I shine the spotlight on a poem written by Juli Malveaux.

Reflection/War

this is a poem
for george
for angela
for attica
for malcolm/martin/medgar
for little girls in pinkribbons
for alabama churches
for blackLIFE
blackLIFE is cheap

u cried niggas
when malcolm/martin/medgar
george
died
u cried niggas
but blackTEARS is cheap
u know
blackTEARS/blackTEARS/blackLIFE
is cheap

the revolution
is over
no one flings
rhetoric
anymore
we've packed away our guns
and grenades
for another day
the revolution is over
all the warriors
have either died
or absconded
BLACKLIFE is cheap

the revolution is
over
n we still
crying/dying
livin
niggas live
while u can
blackLIFE is cheap

the revolution
is over
but the war
has been
happenin
forever
it ain't over yet

so cry
them cheap
do-nothin blackTEARS
the beautiful/beautiful tears
u cry
every time somebody dies
yeah cry
them
cheap do-nothin blackTEARS
cry
for angela/attica/george
malcom/martin/medgar
for all the other
deaths
n casualties
cry
but don't forget,
if the revolution
is over
the war ain't
blackLIFE is cheap
n huntin season's still on
U MAY BE NEXT
U MAY BE NEXT
U MAY BE NEXT...


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