Flora and Fauna
I wanted to bless my eyes this morning
with flora and fauna
so I came in from the cold
of a dream full of unrelenting rain
and opened my eyes to what is customarily
my second sighting of the day:
My ideological father
shot down in the Audubon ballroom
where the only bird observed in motion
was the misappropriated eagle
until the phoenix rose
from the ash of a murderous minstrel show
and transformed into a panther
which prowled
oakland to wounded knee
philadelphia to palestine
roaring revolution
until every generation
generated an evolution
of the message
thought to be dead forever
by those who are as white as the bones
of the myriad numbers of people
whose deaths they are accountable for.
© 2006 Tichaona M.Chinyelu
Beauty
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
And I be holding beauty
When I glance upon them
Theoretically shaping
The future into an afro
Concentric sharpness
That shook
The white power structure
Into confronting
A black consciousness
Organized with a mandate
And a mission
To dismiss
That old time religion
That said
Everything in its place
Especially the black race.
A new paradigm of blackness
Rooted in a community soliloquy.
Ghetto equals colony
And racism is the bastard child
Of fascist economies.
Fanon, Malcolm and James
Became antidotes
For antiquated theologies
And anti-social pathologies.
In the belly of the imperialistic beast,
In the microcosm of prisons
And the macrocosm of the streets
A new paradigm for blackness,
A paradise of struggle
Was created by young soldiers
High school students,
Whores and pimps,
Drug dealers and NASA employees,
Doctors and number runners
Heady
Ready
And willing
With
Fuck that shit.
Far too many fires lit
From Watts to the Congo
Whitey gotta go
Burn baby burn
No ashes in the urn
Time for the tide to turn
And put an end to the yearn.
Discern
Panther power was here
Turned the police into pigs
And nigs into blacks
Figuratively burning effigies
With tactics and strategies
That earned them freedom's mind.
Tichaona Chinyelu 