Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us 'Round"
(for Sekou Sundiata)

   when the shadows chased us
   all the way home
   and the force of their
   intentions broke the windows
   of our mother's house
   we looked for stones
   to arm our slingshots
   and the songs came flying to
   us like birds with jet engines
   wings spread wide
   history spilling its colors across an ocean
   and the only thing we knew for sure
   were the poems we painted and left
   like footprints in the mountains

   ahhhhh yessss
   the poems
   with melody and harmony
   rhythm and history
   the poems
   more than the text so textured
   it could be woven into a fine garment
   hung across weary shoulders
   like a choir robe rising with outstretched hands

   yes
   the poems
   sitting under a fedora
   growing like trees
   on a tongue moving
   nature
   rising and falling
   like dancers caressing
   the notes that infect
   their bodies when the lights disappear

   the poems
   the weight of their truth splashing
   around in blood
   slipping on placenta
   the dirty poems
   full of shit and surprise
   we want the truth

   and when the shadows chase us
   all the way home
   and the force of their
   intentions tries to break the windows
   of our mother's house
   we still find stones
   arm our slingshots
   sing new songs so the birds will
   fly to us like rockets
   wings spread wide
   spilling our colors across the planet
   we know for sure
   we will always paint our poems and leave them
   like footprints in the mountains

   no more slavery
   no more slavery
   no more slavery
   over me