A Poem The Whole World Can Understand
economic exploitation is a universal
condition of the 20th century, there is no world
untouched by multinationals, nor any mind unexposed
to the lure of mass produced glitzy designer consumables
what I mean is nearly everybody in the world has caught the wave
and tasted coke or at least wanted to / is this really a well
crafted poem?
it doesn’t matter, what matters is how well we get on with
helping each other deal with the aftermaths and legacies of
colonialism, those unavoidable struggles must and will be
the subject matter of world literature, the necessary priority
of millions of us, millions of us, no matter how unpoetic this
prophesy might sound next to Shakespeare, what do
we do with the world after white people have conquered? How do
we cope with human and environmental disasters? That is
the question all our literature must in one way or another
strive to answer
assuming we have time
and they do not drop the bomb, the
strategies and dramatic movements of people
of color will be the stuff of short stories, novels,
poems, critical essays and feature length cinema, say what you
will, agree with it or not, the future is not white and this
poem, like it or not, is a statement the whole world can
understand
—kalamu ya salaam