Janis Joplin/poor white-refuse
refugee running for cover of rock,
like a baby with an hereditary
birth defect, i didn't ask
for this white skin privilege;
this maximum security
with guards everywhere
and the wall so far off
so high, so hard to scale
minefields of twinkling consumables
studding the distance between
me and the rest of humanity,
a spiraling bob of drugs at the top
and i ain't asking for no
mercy neither, no pity, none
of yall tears, anyway,
i'm going to kill myself
or at least die trying
they say i'm so wild
cause all what i need is a man,
a real man, a hard on
but like once a man was in me
and said "god, you so ugly
i can't look" but so what
is his opinion anyway but
a thirty second commercial
he thinks he's a man
he thinks niggers stink
he thinks i'm a piece of meat
he's my father, my brother
and this is no gentle incest
nor any human touch
so i will do these insane acts
i will sing in the night
say what i want
drink and be driven crazy
put a tombstone
and real flowers on
a black woman's grave
and have no regrets, no
regrets
—kalamu ya salaam