What kind of person could kill
a Black child
and then kill another
Black child
and then
just to sit there/target
[a] man’s body at auction
This great American poet of democracy
a burning river
as cosmos
formerly citizens of some acceptable position
but
there was a child went forth everyday
one full Black lily
above the dirty
mopped-on antiseptic floors
and dreams of memories and
of the daring
This is a trip that strangers make
around the apple
flesh and fit
better slow down!
I didn’t know and nobody told me
and what could I do or say,
anyway?
People been having accidents
all over the globe
and you keep the pomegranate stacked
inside a wobbly
year old anatomy
horrible
inclination to kiss folk I despise
This is not a good time
to be against the natural order
The natural order is not
about a good time
Chile is as long as China
is wide
the Pope thinks all of the time
neither twist nor turn
disturbance
of the dead
I tried to obliterate such dread
This piece is composed solely out of phrases taken randomly from June Jordan’s (1989) “Lyrical Campaigns: selected poems”.
I’ve loved June Jordan’s work for well over three decades. Her poetry helped me get through some of my toughest experiences of being a young and single black woman trying to find place (and purpose) in urban London, while existing within certain racist-sexist tropes.
Of great value to me is Jordan’s piece “Poem about My Rights”, which is also in this collection. This poem speaks to the need to always resist sexism and racism wherever they are—be that within intimate relationships or out in public space. Some of my favorite lines from the poem, are when Jordan defiantly declares:
I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on my resistance
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
may very well cost you your life
Jordan’s courage knows no bounds, as she tackles various domestic and international topics with passionate honesty. This is what makes her worth reading over and over again. So grab yourself a copy of this classic text, along with other work of hers such as “On Call” (1986), “Moving Towards Home: political essays” (1989) and “Technical Difficulties: selected political essays” (1992). You wont regret it!