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a force for good
(for john coltrane and ahmed obafemi
based on ‘trane’s treatment of ‘nature boy’)

“…I wanna be a force for good…”
		-John Coltrane
 
…there was a man…
a very brave, enchanted man…
and he spoke of many things…
peace and change
this, he said to me…
he wanted to be
a force to help set us free
so we all
cd truly have 
our dignity…

in those backstraightening
             eyeopening times…
times of cities burning
times of black churches bombbursted
times of black and brown babies
             sacrificed in fire!...
hot times! hard times! heroic times!...
times of civil rts workers
black and white
but waaaay mostly black
maimed shot lynched
and made to disappear
the way facists have a way 
of making people disappear…
dangerous and courageous times…
times of music changing
times of art changing
times of laws changing 
and even some people changing…
changing times…
times of yg people challenging
elders about facing the limits
of some of their ways and their times…
questioning times…
times demanding real answers…
critical times…
times of malcolm hurling his flesh
and his incendiary commitment
headlong into the whirlwind!...
times of black workers
bankrupting racist alabama bus companies
feetfirst…
sick and tired times
of fannie lou krashin lbj’s 
big ol’ undemocratic 
false show house party…
magic times…tragic times…
dreamy times…nightmarish times…
times of brothers comin back 
from ‘nam in pieces
times of cia capsizin lumumba
and others like him
and instituting the genocide 
of low intensity warfare in its place…
blessed times…cursed times?...
martin’s roughside mountainclimbin
  	tough times…
times of fidel and che
comin down from the mountains
to make peoples power real
after first makin peoples war rt!...
rough times…reckless times…
revolutionary times…
times of wild pigs and troopers
shootin at emptyarmed black mothers
after shootin at their sons
whether they were runnin or not
or resistin or not…
times of a whole lotta funerals…
times of this nat’l order
feasting off flesh and famine
and hard as hell on the rest of humanity…
insane times…bloodstained times…
times of people movin and marchin 
to stop the madness…
times at times romantic
but often nasty like napalm times…
times at times so evil
it made eric dolphy’s brokenheart stop
somewhere between his ‘be’ and his ‘bop’
at 30 something
even though he was far away
in a safe place at the time…
tearing times…tearing times…
thunderous and wonderous times
like elvin and philly jo jones times…
tryin times…cryin times…
high flyin times…
hot hard heavy and heroic times…
in those times
under those conditions
upon the ghostly shoulders
of underground gone ancestors
this man
this lone bold loving soul of a man…
this man 
this gentle man
of the soft ankhified electric eyes…
this man
obsessed with peace
like the drum major for justice
was obsessed with peace…
this man
this very brave enchanted man
seeking to be a force for real good…
this man 
took those times
by the bell of his tenor
and burrowed laserlike 
thru the pain and love and fury of it all…
this man
took those times
those hot hard heavy and heroic times
by the smoke of his searing soprano
and wiped the blood from the face 
of the stars falling from the sky
of those times
and he poured and he poured and he poured
andpouredandpouredandpouredandpoured
from wells ancient deep within him
onto the forever of our ears
and the eternal of our eyes
until
there was nothing left
nothing
but the voluminous print 
of him 
trying to cradle those times
to make them better…

…he wanted to be 
a force to help set us free
so we all
cd truly have
our dignity…

©2000 all rights reserved
‘bro. zayid’
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