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Word Up!
This just may be
the last poem from the last poet
among the poets of last
who first spoke the word.
In the beginning
the Word was
is and ever will be
the force liberating
both you and me
from the mental shackles
of the new slavery.
Word up!
For a downed people!
Word up! Black is beautiful!
So beautiful to be Black!
Yet that’s not enough
lease you be satisfied
with the present stuff:
“Yo…what up dog”?
(can’t you see)
(What’s
been
done)
(To
you
me?)
They turned the word around
and made us
the chase and the hound:
“What up…dog?”
Word up “G”!
Word up “O”
(Yo!)
Word up “D”
We are the Alpha and the Omega!
Nubian queens! Sable Kings!
Africa!
Jamaica!
America!
Oh can’t you see
What’s been done
To you and me?
Took desegregation
made it integration
of two nations
that we remain to be
from sea to shining sea!
Took the best of us God sent
and left us with a deferred dream
well spent;
and a generation unaware
what the movement meant!
Today, Malcolm
is just a movie money maker;
King is just for a day; poor
Rosa is just another play:
like that about a bus
driving down dat highway!
The Word
is and ever shall be
the spiritual force
that will always set us free:
The germinating force
of your generation’s
possibilities!
This just may be
the last poem from the last poet
among the poets of last
who first spoke the word
that still must be heard:
Word Up!
