TERRORISM!!!! i live with terror everyday
i am a Wife, Mother, Sista, Grandmother
a Black womyn
kidnapped long-ago, bought & sold in amerikkka
that is the terror i live with everyday
i live with terror because the Man i Love
Sekou Mgobozi Abdullah Odinga
is captured behind enemy lines
a u.s. held PP/POW
in the prison death camps of amerikkka
that sanctioned the murders of
Albert Nuh Washington
Kwasi Balagoon
Teddy Jah Heath
Bashir Hameed
Merle Africa
kept Mumia & Zolo on death row
& would like the exact same life & death for
Sundiata Acoli
Imam Jamil Al-Amin
Herman Bell
Veronza Bowers
Robert Seth Hayes
Mondo we Langa
Abdul Majid
Jalil Muntaqim
Kamau Sadiki
Mutulu Shakur
my Man & all our freedom-Loving
captured Freedom Fighters
i live with terror knowing that they
lynched, burned, mutilated Black bodies in
Tulsa, Wilmington, Atlanta, everywhere
just like they murdered
Nat
Emmitt
Medgar
Malcolm
Fred
Jonathan & then his brother George
Amadou
Sean
Trayvon & all those Black boys & Black men
somebody’s Son, Father, Husband, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle or Friend
that they always always get away with murdering
i live with terror
remembering how they placed a $40,000 “wanted” dead or alive bounty on Harriet’s head
while hunting every one of her freedom-seeking refused to be a slave runaways
tried to burn down Ida
stalked & harassed Billie
ran Rosa outta town
beat Fannie Lou
cheated Nina
killed Eleanor
shot, tortured & dis-labeled Assata a “terrorist”
while placing a $2 million bounty on her Afrikan head
you see Black people live with terror generations deep
in the Cointelpro’s that operate as much today
in the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, this Surveillance State
& all its wickedly repressive tools of war to crush dissent & resistance
as it did 40 years ago
when it criminalized, targeted, framed, drove into exile
& murdered dozens of BPP/BLA soldiers
so that
in these streets
on the train
in ‘theys’ schools
in the families we call our own
young & old eyes tell the painful twisted stories of
oppression, injustice & terror
in the many angry
hopeless
beaten down
disconnected Black/Brown souls
who grow up children, marry, divorce, go to work, school & about their lives everyday
knowing that any time
the u.s. government
its killer police
its military
the real terrorists
wants
they will come after them
after me
after you
after everyone of us
until who is left to ‘carry it on’
Black people know terrorism is the history of amerikkka’s politics
past, present & future
yet everyday
we get up & start all over again
everyday & everyday & everyday
till we are FREE déqui kioni-sadiki (edited sept 17th 2014)
Poetcetera 30th Anniversary Tribute to George Edward Tait
George Edward Tait
not only the Poet Laureate of Harlem
but the Poet Laureate of Black & New Afrikan freedom fighting
the Poet Laureate of our 30 & 40 year unjustly imprisoned
BPP/BLA/RNA freedom fighters
this here
Poet Laureate makes it his business
to answer when we
MXCC
the Jericho Movement
the Sekou Odinga Defense Committee
call
he answers in the language of Resistance & Freedom
& mighty mighty Mau Mau rhythms
loud & proud
fierce & strong
self-determined & courageous
armed & ready to defend
our PP/POWs
pen in hand
truth-telling bullets of Afrikan warriorwords
aimed at this criminal enterprise of u.s. injustice
making plain
what others
even some of us
choose to
ignore
silence
dismiss
minimize
reinvent
George Edward Tait
our Poet Laureate brother
puts it down
keeps on pushing us on
reminding & teaching
that our freedom is a constant struggle
this here struggle is protracted
days & weeks & months & years & generations & centuries
millenniums deep
& he don’t stop
& we don’t stop
till there ain’t no such thing as “Political Prisoner Blues”
déqui kioni-sadiki January 27th 2013
shared with permission