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By Cecil Washington (aka………)
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
So we should give up the pretense
Use our common sense and
Just bare good witness
To the human condition of
African American living
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
So why do we say our words in the same
Iiiinnnn---tow—naaayyy---shun
Used by the Last Poets
We raise our
Voi-
Ces
In the middle of a
Thought, as we
Pause…….
Gasp,
Whisper……..
Then
Yeelllllllllllllllllll
to make our points
We use the word nigga like heavy seasoning salt
Instead of using the word to reflect our dialect’s faults
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
So why do some of us talk about revolution
When we know we ain’t willing to do what it takes
We are not gonna live in a fox hole for weeks
Shoot at armed white militia from behind bushes
Capture radio stations and build our own infor- and infra-structures
We aren’t anywhere near ready for
Social change
Economic change
Educational change
The REAL places we can effectively have a revolution
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
But what do we do?
We make poems that will meander
So that we can appear to be
Deep
We’re
Reaching and
Lifting and
Searching and
Building and
Hoping and
Willing and
Looking and
Stretching and
We might as well be doing calisthenics
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
And if you have managed to read this poem for this long
You may wonder if I am
Revolutionary
My only revolution is against
Ignorance and
Hate
I have to go out on my own and declare a war with
Perceptions
Against a world that does not want
Me to be me
Most of us young poets are not
Revolutionary
But we don’t need to be revolutionaries
We need to be
Human