by Judy Juanita
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| Billionaires space race published July 12, 2021 by Dave Whamond. |
Billionaires millionaires the amerikkkan dream
Up, up and away onto the edge of space
Horatio Alger wins again
Rags-to-riches
Poor boy sandwiches
Raggedy Ann dolls
Immigrants in shacks
Children in cages
We love it all, eh?
Up, up and away
The bigger the better
The farther from the crime scene
The better. And the edge of space is
The Mall of America.
Opportunity our national anthem
Except except Tulsa in 1920-when? 1921
Black people black dynasties
Black millionaires buying and flying
Their own airplanes
Black businesses black prosperity
And we prostrate ourselves
For a black face on the $20 bill
Eh?
Ask the black Okies
About the grand downtown they built
Especially for the bombs
Dropped especially on Tulsa
Listen to the sound of bombs
The bombs bursting in air
That Francis Scott Keys conjured
Ask the black Oakies
Then forward to Philly in 1990-what?
1990-when? 1990-why?
Because a black mayor dropped bombs
On wild haired Ramona Africa
An American millionaire, no?
Rags to riches, no?
Horatio Alger, no?
MOVE the antithesis of progress
Cleanliness
We, the clean, deodorant-rich country
Watching televised spectacles
Little blue-and-white suited people
Blast past the boundary of space as
The richest man in the world
Thanks his wage slaves and customers
For paying for it all
And all is forgiven because why? Because
When the land ran into the Pacific Ocean
Manifest destiny shot into space
Judy Juanita's latest book is Manhattan My Ass, You’re In Oakland, a collection of poetry. Her semi-autobiographical novel Virgin Soul chronicled a black female coming of age in the 60s who joins the Black Panther Party. Her collection of essays DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland examines the intersectionality of race, gender, politics, economics and spirituality as experienced by a black activist and self-described "feminist foot soldier." The collection was a distinguished finalist in Ohio State University's 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize. Her seventeenth play, “Theodicy,” about two black men who accidentally fall into the river of death, won first runner-up of 186 plays in the Eileen Heckart 2008 Senior Drama Competition at Ohio State University.