WE WAS RED BEFORE THEY CALLED US BLACK We was red before Marx gave a color to sharing (which after all, we did all the time before we became acquainted with snow and learned to look at a machine to tell us what time it was, some of us even carry clocks in our teeth and get a toothache every time the opportunity to escape presents itself it is so boring becoming white all you got to do is do the same shit over and over again try to be god fuck over women and vainly conspire to chain the weather over and over I know you think this poem is crazy but that’s only because you’re a capitalist and hate anything red, not to mention if it’s black and riffing about peace and freedom no, I didn’t get this from Marx Marx got the idea of sharing from us you don’t believe me, ask Engles who the first humans was and how they used to live a long time before the calendar how do you think people kept track of what time it was twenty thousand years ago I bet you they survived I bet you they had children lived, loved, laughed and cried I bet you they weren’t late for work or worried about the midnight tax deadline in the middle of April—taxes? What is that some form of devil worship, of paying tribute to the great-great grandchildren of terrorists? I bet you long time ago women still had their periods regular without having to take Tylenol for three days straight, and we didn’t have to wonder what to do with trash that wouldn’t disappear if you buried it or what time the church service was or leaving work late to avoid the rush hour traffic or none of that I bet you they didn’t worry about the stock market crashing or paying the mortgage—mortgage? A strange word, mort = death, gage = pledge, what are we pledging to pay back some money or die trying, I know most of yall believe in progress believe we know more than people did ten thousand years ago I bet you think a cell phone and a computer prove that we better off than natives was in Africa even two thousand years ago Ok, here’s one for you, there were at least 12 Egyptian dynasties each one at least four or five hundred years long, how much longer you think America going to be around I’ll give you a few moments to think about that Opps, time’s up…) —kalamu ya salaam