Time catches up with kingdoms
in the twinkling of an eye
that suffering and dancing country
morally bankrupt and politically unstable
their dimes and quarters
merciless formulation
for generations
predictable wishful distortions
spiritual aridity of my life
conscious blacks, who must, like lovers
all your lives
insist on, or create, the consciousness
of the others,
saved from the holocaust,
accept them with love
remove this cloud
world as a fixed star
loud on Freedom
This piece is composed solely out of phrases taken randomly from James Baldwin’s (1963) “The Fire Next Time”. This book is a brilliant study of Black struggle for recognition and freedom in the USA, contained in two essays. As always, Baldwin serves as an eloquent witness of racism in everyday life in the USA, during the 50s and 60s. Baldwin speaks to the urgent and long overdue need to address racial inequality through love and social justice, otherwise the consequence will be dire; thus, as a caution he says
“God gave Noah the rainbow sign.
No more water, the fire next time!”