Word Up

Word Up! This just may be the last poem from the last poet among the poets of last who first spoke the word. In the beginning the Word was is and ever will be the force liberating both you and me from the mental shackles of the new slavery. Word up! For a downed people! Word up! Black is beautiful! So beautiful to be Black! Yet that’s not enough lease you be satisfied with the present stuff: “Yo…what up dog”? (can’t you see) (What’s been done) (To you me?) They turned the word around and made us the chase and the hound: “What up…dog?” Word up “G”! Word up “O” (Yo!) Word up “D” We are the Alpha and the Omega! Nubian queens! Sable Kings! Africa! Jamaica! America! Oh can’t you see What’s been done To you and me? Took desegregation made it integration of two nations that we remain to be from sea to shining sea! Took the best of us God sent and left us with a deferred dream well spent; and a generation unaware what the movement meant! Today, Malcolm is just a movie money maker; King is just for a day; poor Rosa is just another play: like that about a bus driving down dat highway! The Word is and ever shall be the spiritual force that will always set us free: The germinating force of your generation’s possibilities! This just may be the last poem from the last poet among the poets of last who first spoke the word that still must be heard: Word Up!