POEM: JANIS JOPLIN

 

 

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