POEM FOR A LIGHT/WEIGHT SISTER...

The following article contains anti-Black racial slurs.

POEM FOR A LIGHT/WEIGHT SISTER SHO'NUFF GITTING

DOWN IN THE HEAVY/WEIGHT DIVISION ... OR, "BET

ALL MINE ON THE LITTLE LADY WITH THE BIG HAND/BAG."

(FOR SIS. ESTELLA HARRIS)

 

Fight time: Now! better git your bet down.

no peanuts, no popcorn, no hot dogs, no reserved

seats, no commercials,

no Buddy

   its a brand new fight and a new style fighter,

yea. A real live non-spectator sport

what'cha could call a

Free for all, yeh. We're taking it out of the Madison

"Square Gardens"

into the streets_______ you could say ________

we'se taking it out of context. . . ain't we something . . .

adding new definitions/dimensions. . . disqualifying

vapid "Marquis of Queensberry" rules/injectin full bodied

Fanon logic/cong tactic and nigger git down, yeh.

Fight time. Now! bet all mine on sister/woman.

In this corner/black

back against the wall

wearing the red, black and green

nails unsheathed, teeth bared,

gitting down for the full count

the peoples/favored to win/revolutionary/vanguard Sister

woman on the rise-sparks flying from her

 

defiant eyes glued to the crown; the prize stolen 400

(odd ____ yrs ago.) and secreted beneath watery graves and

fetid cotton fields and

massa's whip and cloven hoofs and

foul stinking licentious rapes and

voluminous lies and Dreadful Scott decisions, yeh.

bet all mine on Sister/woman.

 

she moves ___________ gracefully ____________ slow-rhythmic

lightning fast/cat like/black/stalking motion

Ali Shuffles/Sister Style

(that's with the lee taken out and the all left in)

yeh, um putting all mine on sister woman,

   feinting/jabbing her pen/right cross

counter revolutionaries glass jaws

float like a butterfly/sting like a bee/colony

brilliantly bobbing _______ wearing clear, decisive outlines

inspirational designs for 21st century spooks

who've sat by the door

for lack of

            functional blueprints to act

Right on ... on Sister/woman.              yeh.

Fight time: now!

People lining up behind/beside the peoples

Choice/sister. . .

causing brother/man to take

second look's and vanguard positions              yeh

creating from the nameless/faceless void

the terrible man/child              yeh

Jon and George and Lil'Bobby

and Fred yeh, and Bunchy

and Doc' and Mark yeh, and

Featherstone and Cigarette, yeh,

and Cinque and yeh, them too.

and be ready

to give it back/double

off the top

at the finish

of the fight.