PURELY VICTORIOUS
by Ewuare Osayande
Act I
what is art
but advocacy
(so said Ossie)
nothing created
that ever was created
was wrought
in a vacuum
all art is made in the real world
where opposites exist and collide
of rich and poor
of less and more
of beauty and gore
of ignorance and lore
of despise and adore
of ill and cure
all art takes sides
whom do you create for?
(so said Baraka via Mao and DuBois)
cant vacillate on the sidelines of life
while the world is backed up against the Wall Street
facing the firing squads of imperial goons
and critics
who deify dollars
who reify the status quo
with their front paged lies
who don’t know poverty
except as an entry in Webster’s dictionary
but we who toil in the defecation of dictators
fertilize an existence from their waste
to indict and defy
those who would have us die
but with each utterance
each manifestation
of our minds
we define for all time
what we see, what we know and we wish to be
the will to free or enslave
if we are conscious or depraved
is carved in the bone of our art
and we are not saved
by it
whether sold or sought
what matters in the end
is the quality of our quest
for beauty and truth
all the rest
is worth no more or less
than the blood
than courses through our veins
Act II
Purlie Victorious
our whole lives are but satires
the enslaved mocking the massa
crackin up under the tracks of tears
that trek down our brown faces
we know more than we let on
sometimes
sometimes
even to ourselves
Act III
and here comes another long-distance runner
race man
carrying the baton passed on by Robeson
he bequeathed to you his vision and voice
and there you stood
smooth chocolate baritone
like a Mingus bass line
(from “II B.S.”)
ba doom doom doom doom
da da doimp doimp doimp
da da doom doom doom
da da doom doom doom
doom dippa doom dippa
da da da doom da da doooooommmmm
doimp!
a smooth bluesy
Georgia cotton drawl
spoke in the cadence of dignity
a diction of defiance
to hear you was to hear our history
calling out loud to a future yet to be
to be
to be
to be
to be
true to what we know is so
a steady rhythm of words laced with longing
you constructed verse like a scientist
finding the appropriate weight or measure
you treasured words and the meanings they held
but your most precious gem
was the Ruby you wore around your heart
a courtship of commitment
your marriage was one life-long kiss
the bliss of living on the pulse of purpose
to struggle
to fight
against those that would deny us our love
serenaded by Marian Anderson’s contralto
cracking the glass ceiling of whiteness
with the siren of her sincerity
actor with a worker’s heart
and hands
carrying our demands to governors
who blocked the doorway to our destiny
you eulogized
both King and the man you called
our Black shining prince
your words covered them like burnt incense
a holy offering
sacred incantations
that can resurrect the dead
still
your shoes cannot be filled
the souls of your feet
88 years thick
double infinity
eternity times two
who will make us live again?
who can speak words whose truths wont choke them before they leave their mouths?
who can utter a vision then walk it without contradiction?
who can say with you that
"The profoundest commitment possible to a black creator in this country today
--beyond all creeds, crafts, classes and ideologies whatsoever—
is to bring before his [or her] people the scent of freedom."
I have caught a whiff
from you
Da Mayor
forever saying
“Doctor, always do the right thing”
I’ve got it.
I’m gone.
Copyright © 2005 by Ewuare Osayande
Ewuare Osayande (www.osayande.org) is a poet, political activist and author of several books including Black Anti-Ballistic Missives: Resisting War/Resisting Racism. His next book of poems entitled Blood Luxury will be published by Africa World Press in 2005. Currently, Osayande resides in Philly, PA where he is the facilitator of P.O.W.E.R.: People Organized Working to Eradicate Racism.