Some say
he was confused
for having been
refused
a front seat
on the bus…
he really
wanted to drive,
truth be told –
but he was not
confused at all;
he was only
richly endowed
with a
salty tongue
in his anger
against a society
and the culture
of a pale people
who had dragged him
and his sires
against the roaring
waves of the Atlantic
and landed in
Georgia against
their will,
dragged into a culture
too cruel
to recognize
and accept
it was all right
to be sun-burned
and proud
of yourself
and your kind…
a cruel culture
that only knew
how to use
and abuse
and then callously
discard and
malign
those who had
sweated and bled
the most to
enrich
and make it great –
oh, no,
he wasn’t
in any way
confused
for being refused
after giving
his all
to make
America great
and strong
as never before…
no,
he wasn’t
confused
at all,
he was only
sad and
sorry
to have lacked
the full
upper-body strength
to unleash
that deadly blow
against those who
only knew
how to rape
and exploit
and plunder
and abuse –
for abuse
is what racism
is all about;
it is what
Jim-Crow too
is all about;
it is also what
segregation
is all about,
also discrimination
and all that makes one
an unprovoked
outcast –
and so,
Uncle Baraka
was not
confused
at all,
he was only
a brave soldier
who knew how
and when to
strike where
it hurt
the predator
the most –
1/9/14