zenekar
01-05-2012, 04:28 PM
New Poem For Mumia by Alice Walker Courtesy of prisonradio
Occupying Mumia’s Cell Copyright©2011 by Alice Walker
I Sing of Mumia--brilliant and strong and of the captivity that few black
men escape--if they are as free as he has become.
What a teacher he is for all of us. Nearly thirty years in solitary and
still, Himself.
He will die himself. A black man; whom many consider to be
a Muslim, though this is not how he narrows down
the criss-crossing paths of his soul’s journey.
Perhaps it is simpler to call him a lover of truth
who refuses to be silenced.
Is anything more persecuted in this land?
No boots will be allowed of course
so he will not die with them on;
but there will always be boots
of the mind and spirit and of the heart and soul.
His will be black and shining (or maybe the color of rainbows)
and they will sprout wings.
Mumia: they have decided finally not to kill you
hoping no blood will stain their hands
at the tribunal of the people;
but to let you continue to die slowly
creating and singing your own songs as you pace
alone, sometimes terrorized, for decades of long nights
in your small cage of a cell.
We lament our impotence: that we have failed
to get you out of there.
Your regal mane may have thinned as our locks too,
those flags of our self sovereignty, may even have
disappeared; waiting out this unjust sentence,
until we, like you, have become old.
Still, if you will: accept our gratitude that you stand,
even bootless, on your feet.
We see that few of those around us, well shod and walking,
even owning, the streets are freed. Somehow you have been.
Enough to remind us of freedom’s devout internal and
ineradicable seed.
What a magnificent Lion you have been all these
disastrous years and still are, indeed.
-------------------
DREAD TIMES - Dedicated to the free flow of information -
https://www.dreadtimes.com (https://www.dreadtimes.com/)
Occupying Mumia’s Cell Copyright©2011 by Alice Walker
I Sing of Mumia--brilliant and strong and of the captivity that few black
men escape--if they are as free as he has become.
What a teacher he is for all of us. Nearly thirty years in solitary and
still, Himself.
He will die himself. A black man; whom many consider to be
a Muslim, though this is not how he narrows down
the criss-crossing paths of his soul’s journey.
Perhaps it is simpler to call him a lover of truth
who refuses to be silenced.
Is anything more persecuted in this land?
No boots will be allowed of course
so he will not die with them on;
but there will always be boots
of the mind and spirit and of the heart and soul.
His will be black and shining (or maybe the color of rainbows)
and they will sprout wings.
Mumia: they have decided finally not to kill you
hoping no blood will stain their hands
at the tribunal of the people;
but to let you continue to die slowly
creating and singing your own songs as you pace
alone, sometimes terrorized, for decades of long nights
in your small cage of a cell.
We lament our impotence: that we have failed
to get you out of there.
Your regal mane may have thinned as our locks too,
those flags of our self sovereignty, may even have
disappeared; waiting out this unjust sentence,
until we, like you, have become old.
Still, if you will: accept our gratitude that you stand,
even bootless, on your feet.
We see that few of those around us, well shod and walking,
even owning, the streets are freed. Somehow you have been.
Enough to remind us of freedom’s devout internal and
ineradicable seed.
What a magnificent Lion you have been all these
disastrous years and still are, indeed.
-------------------
DREAD TIMES - Dedicated to the free flow of information -
https://www.dreadtimes.com (https://www.dreadtimes.com/)