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this is the year
that O.J. would have been shot in the white Bronco
by a white cop
and Zimmerman
found guilty and found hung in a cell, palms out like rabbit ear pockets,
Malcolm firing his rifle,
cracking old laws like stone tablets,
disobey they
and rewrite the bible
recite the hymns
that reopen the underground tunnels.
hustle back our rights established
reclaim our passage to the front seat,
Huey P. riding shotgun
rerouting the buses that pack us,
process
and package us
this is the year
you witness awoken children
mentally floss
with the barbed wire off school yard fences,
like crowns of Christ,
bringing the generation towards the light
and out of the television
like the old lady in poltergeist.
this is the year
revolutionary dice
start rolling off the tongues of guerilla poets,
who become martyrs in the cross
hairs of Dr. King's nightmares,
where we're as endangered as Florida panthers
this is the year…
we play the national anthem backwards,
use our flags for bandanas,
burn stars til our fingers turn gold
become as bold,
as a bullet that ricochets
off the headdress
of a 12 year old child
lucky charms and chicken bones,
all lower case gods cuffing at the poker table,
vetoing teacher's earning salaries like politicians
this is the year
survival comes with commission
and we graffiti poetic justice
on the walls of wall street,
this is the year
bastards of the state
water board lady justice,
backhand the bitch
with pages of the constitution,
remove her blindfold
make her stare into our faces,
forcing her legal loop holes so wide we jump out through them
this is the year
we bury cancer in pink ribbons
and unbury those buried in the system.
this is the year
you put the phone down, stop recording, and help me!
this is the year
our middle fingers and trigger fingers come together and make
peace.