Amiri Baraka
Somebody Blew Up America
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist,
some barbaric
A Rab,
in Afghanistan
It wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiringIt wasn't
The gonorrhea in costume
The white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleasesThey say (who say?)
Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the BucksWho got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nationWho live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your paWho got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the DevilWho the biggest only
Who the most goodest
Who do Jesus resembleWho created everything
Who the smartest
Who the greatest
Who the richest
Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingestWho define art
Who define scienceWho made the bombs
Who made the gunsWho bought the slaves, who sold them
Who called you them names
Who say Dahmer wasn't insaneWho? Who? Who?
Who stole Puerto Rico
Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan
Australia & The Hebrides
Who forced opium on the ChineseWho own them buildings
Who got the money
Who think you funny
Who locked you up
Who own the papersWho owned the slave ship
Who run the armyWho the fake president
Who the ruler
Who the bankerWho? Who? Who?
Who own the mine
Who twist your mind
Who got bread
Who need peace
Who you think need warWho own the oil
Who do no toil
Who own the soil
Who is not a nigger
Who is so great ain't nobody biggerWho own this city
Who own the air
Who own the waterWho own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouthWho live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytimeWho killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most LatinosWho? Who? Who?
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radioWho own what ain't even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain't the real ownersWho own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
Who make the lawsWho made Bush president
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lyingWho the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who know who decide
Jesus get crucifiedWho the Devil on the real side
Who got rich from Armenian genocideWho the biggest terrorist
Who change the bible
Who killed the most people
Who do the most evil
Who don't worry about survivalWho have the colonies
Who stole the most land
Who rule the world
Who say they good but only do evil
Who the biggest executionerWho? Who? Who?
Who own the oil
Who want more oil
Who told you what you think that later you find out a lieWho? Who? Who?
Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
Who pay the CIA,
Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
Who know why the terrorists
Learned to fly in Florida, San DiegoWho know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notionWho need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere
Who make the credit cards
Who get the biggest tax cut
Who walked out of the Conference
Against Racism
Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?Who invaded Grenada
Who made money from apartheid
Who keep the Irish a colony
Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua laterWho killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,
Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,
Little BobbyWho locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus HuttonWho killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
Who tried to keep the Vietnamese OppressedWho put a price on Lenin's head
Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow starsWho killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinated, vanishedWho got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
Who invented Aids
Who put the germs
In the Indians' blankets
Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"Who blew up the Maine
& started the Spanish American War
Who got Sharon back in Power
Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
Chiang kai ChekWho decided Affirmative Action had to go
Reconstruction, The New Deal,
The New Frontier, The Great Society,Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
SubsidereWho overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
Who poison Robeson,
who try to put DuBois in Jail
Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,
Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys,
The Hollywood TenWho set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?Who? Who? Who?
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say
The devil face cd be seenWho make money from war
Who make dough from fear and lies
Who want the world like it is
Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national
oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerfulWho you know ever
Seen God?But everybody seen
The DevilLike an Owl exploding
In your life in your brain in your self
Like an Owl who know the devil
All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dogLike the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO who who
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!
I Find The Same Thing Looking Up
I find the same thing looking up
I’m here and causing some to suffer
they say again and again
Why? Because I’m ….something….it’s registered
and lost…I’m not what they want. Not the person
they thought. Not good. Not what
they need. All my life they say this. I got kicked
out of College.
You’re not what we want. Then the Air Force. The
same.
No kidding. You’re not what we want. I came home. I
left. Yr not what we want. You act weird. I wasnt
acting that weird.
In the downtown white people Village. I was there
and in that. For real. I married one of the
indigenous interlocutors. Yeh, I did. So, what were
you doing forty years ago? Sneaking around with the
whatnames’ what not. OK. Its cool. But then there
too, for all the, HEY!, we shouted. What’s that? They
said Sun. The said light. Walking across town with
a chicken under my arm, a few rolls from the
doorway. HEY!, the smell of coffee. A whose that ok
white girl! Really. OK. So what were you doing in
that tree hobbling with the broke toes? See?
But all that became all that. The way things change.
You knew it. You didnt . But you cd see the things
marching off the ground. Nat’s whisper about the
letters and numbers the black and white angels
fighting. Then they shot Malcolm. Zoooooooom
(you thought)
the other (you thought)
there was a way (you thought)
You could get away (you thought)
You could clean up (you thought)
You’d fight, you’d be real and fight and not take no
neverminds. (You thought) They never, anybody. Who?
Nobody never did, forgive you. And the village
people, not there, but here, in their little make
believe whole world sidestreets of limited
information. they didnt either. Hey, you, here you
come. we did all this. we knew all this. we was
you….again.
(I thought)
We did somethings (I thought) some things, Backed
them up, we thought and now they say
you aint shit you aint shit you aint shit you aint
shit
and whats more you never was, never was
Ka'Ba
"A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and Black people
call across or scream across or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will.
Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air.
We are beautiful people
With African imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants
with African eyes, and noses, and arms
tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.
We have been captured,
and we labor to make our getaway, into
the ancient image; into a new
Correspondence with ourselves
and our Black family. We need magic
now we need the spells, to raise up
return, destroy,and create. What will be
the sacred word?
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...
Things have come to that.
And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.Nobody sings anymore.
And then last night I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there...
Only she on her knees, peeking intoHer own clasped hands
