We love…poetry by Zayid Muhammad

Sacred Mud

( for Fannie Lou Hamer)

 

I want the whispers of the ancestors

who moistened the land with their blood

I want u

liftin’ the eyes of our children

after they kiss this sacred mud…

want a church big enuf

for yr giant spirit

made by Black worker’s hands…

want a circle of women in white

of all ages

washin’ u in a sea of praise dance…

want the hauntin’ echo of yr golden eggs

burned from yr open womb

want u orderin’ a column of Black angels

to make sure Jim Crow

stays down in his tomb…

want yr cloudpartin’ shouts of power

reared back

lightin’ new stars in the sky…

want yr quantum leap from sharecropper

to nonviolent stormtrooper

to calibrate in Bob Moses’ four eyes…

I want the inmates’ schizophrenic sweat

from when they beat u

bloodblue purple and red

want chickens

to come home to roost for them crackers

who wanted to see u dead…

want yr battle borne blood shot eyes

framin’ u tellin’ our lynchscarred story

want u lyricizin’ our triumph

over evil and terror

sproutin’ from yr big chested glory…

want a church

big enuf for yr giant spirit

made by proud

Black worker’s hands

want a circle of sisters in white

washin’ u in a sea of praise dance…

want the whispers of the ancestors

who enriched the land with their spilled blood

want u raisin’ the eyes of our children

after they first

kiss

this sacred mud…

 

 

 

Copyright © 2016 by Baba Zayid Muhammad

 

Zayid Muhammad is a jazz poet, stage actor and well-known “cub” of the N.Y. chapter of the Black Panther Party.  He is currently working on two volumes of poetry, The Soul Poems-Offerings of Love and Rage and We Ride! For Malcolm, The Black Panther Party And Those Who Dare To Heir.