SOLITARY CONFINEMENT/TORTURE (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
I spent over 20 years
in the hole,
Watching humans
lose their souls.
Into sheer madness
many descended,
At their own hands
many lives ended.
It’s not as though
officials
WAKANDA FOR WHAT (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Wakanda for what?
A comic book drama
To keep our eyes wide shut.
A caricature
of Black struggle against
the most heinous conditions,
Replacing our actual history
with animated fiction.
Lowndes County
… Read the rest
2020 VISION (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
A pandemic
brought things
to a halt,
No vaccine no cure
no clues how caught.
Closest of kin
closest friends
passing on no warnings,
Like instant nightfall
from a bright sunny morning.
Shelter
… Read the rest
STRANGER FRUIT (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Compact spaces
Contain a stranger fruit,
Dark bodies crammed together
Like grapes with no roots.
Mass incarceration
Razor wire plantations,
Confining people
Of oppressed nations,
Chicano AmerIndian
New Afrikan Haitian.
A process of
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
There’s a hidden contract,
In you’re black.
Looking to make a debut
Hollywood ain’t gonna take you,
Unless you let ’em
Make you.
A cop soldier or spy on the silver screen
Others exalted him
But Mao was a modest fella,
Saw himself like a monk
Wandering with a leaky umbrella.
Devoted to the people
Never grew tired,
To be a good teacher
Is all he aspired.
Rejected opportunism on
Joma
Short for Jose Maria Sison,
A Union leader
When very young.
He’d later become,
One of the the greatest revolutionary
Leaders the world has known.
Founded the revolutionary party
Of the Philippines,
And the New People’s Army
To empower
Put on display
Like an animal in a zoo
You’ve been recognized as
“The first Black to…”
What does it mean
Some sort of progress?
That you’ve proven
Yourself a success?
That you’re
Better than the rest?
No, all
Yesterday a Black guard
puttin’ on for white pigs
Helped beat a young Black prisoner,
And cover up what they did.
Today she talkin’,
“Yet another unarmed kid”
“The only thing he did,
Walking home being Black”
“Was targeted by
… Read the rest
We need a proper assessment
What is education?
Passing the torch of things learned
To the next generation.
Which makes our elders
Priceless jewels,
Indispensable to our liberation schools.
But the young
Can’t be confined,
To what was developed
In
