Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!
NAMES, PLACES, US
Who did they kill?
What were the names of those Blacks they killed then?
No One knows no one knows
no names no places just us to witness
they are dead, killed only because their skins were Black,
we are here only because their skins were black
Who did they kill? What, where, who? Who did they kill, murder?
What?
They killed you! Who? Who dead drift now who they killed
Are you hip to the middle passage? how many of our people rest now at sea
their bones & flesh chewed & eaten by fish, abandoned to die in a turbulent sea
whipped by the frenzied hands of white masters into their places
What were the names of those Blacks they killed then
Who did they kill? What are you?
WHAT ARE YOU BLACK PEOPLE!!!!???? WHERE ARE YOU!!!!????
I often go down to the sea & stand looking out across
wondering
How many of my people rest now out there their bones eaten by fish
thrown there, in those waters form slave ships years ago
abandoned to die in a turbulent sea whipped by the hands of white masters
who were they? What were the names of those Blacks they killed then
No one knows, no one knows, they are dead, killed only because their skins were Black
One day bones will wash from the sea and rest gleaming in the sun on eastern seaboard shores
let them then try to lie to you, let them try explaining where those bones come from
those bones, bones of our ancestors, dead, killed, murdered
nameless Black people, countless Black people we don't even know now
Black bones form the sea, Black bones
Bones Black bones washed upon the shore, washed upon the sand
Black bones resting in the sand from the sea, no home, no name, just bones
Legs & arms, large, small bones, Black bones Black bones thrown up from the sea
Black bones from the sea, Black bones
And when I die throw me too into that sea facing toward Black Africa
Let fish eat my hair, and my eyes, and my Black flesh
Let me go home again and if not home at least to the bottom
where I know others rest
Let me join others like me dead at the bottom
BLACK FOREVER MORE!!!!!!
Written by Kalamu Ya Salaam
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