photo by Alex Lear
STILL RUNNING
(meditations on integration)
1.
escaping plantations is not
simple
simply
a matter of running
away / for
to getaway successfully
you must not only run
from
but establish yourself
in
the place
to which
you run
somehow
create a home
create community
some how
shape space
transform
the alien air
of here & now
where ever
you are
into the welcoming
embrace
of home
2.
now that the big house
is on fire
and none of the world
is offering water
the progeny
of our former masters
hang out welcome signs
and proclaim
we are all the same
we can even sleep
in their beds with them
if our amnesia is deep enough
the price of admission:
leave your soul at the door, preferably
outside, not even on the porch
but in the yard
the back
yard
now pledge
allegiance
to this system
your history does not
matter
that the jails are full
of us
does not matter
that our illnesses
are at record levels
does not matter
that we own less
have less wealth
than ten years after
slavery
does not matter
if we forget
who we were
who we are
does not matter
3.
when we think
the other
is our problem
we have become
our own problem
after all
aren’t we all
wayfaring pilgrims
just passing thru
a strange
land, all of us
in need
of a helping
hand?
4.
regardless
of what those who own
to live
tell you
you can only really own
whatever you brought
into this world
whatever you brought with
you is all that you can
take when you leave
5.
you can not escape
the plantation
if you are carrying
their architecture
in your head
in your heart
6.
some of us
run
away
some of us
run
towards
until we die
all of us
are
running
7.
zig zag
brother
reverse field
stutter step
skip, hop, & jump
zig zag
sister
they’ll catch us
if we stand still
8.
our people
are our hills
—amilcar cabral
I think we should live
up in the hills
—burning spear
9.
no rest for the weary
believe
I’ll run
on and see
what tomorrow brings
—kalamu ya salaam
These poems are right on point. I am a writer//poet,storyteller,playwright author of scripts and I am working with the Maroon people of Jamaica to have recognized and included in the Pan African movement of unification. I am really touched and inspired with the clarity in which you outline the reality of problems and issues confronting the runaway. It sums up what these communities and their descendants who leave them for the outside world are facing even today at this time hundreds of years after their ancestors fled plantations to establish their own communities. With your permission I’dlike to quote some this work with proper credit to you.of course. I’m in the middle pf arrangin programmes on their behalf.
no problem. quote whatever you like. be well. have visited mooretown back in the 80s.
kalamu