(for john Coltrane and Ahmed Obafemi)

"...I wanna be a force for good..."

-John Coltrane

...there was a man...

a very brave, enchanted man...

and he spoke of many things...

peace and change

this, he said to me...

he wanted to be

a force to help set us free

so we all

cd truly have

our dignity...

in those backstraightening

eyeopening times...

times of cities burning

times of black churches bombbursted

times of black and brown babies

sacrificed in fire!...

hot times! hard times! heroic times!...

times of civil rts workers

black and white

but waaaay mostly black

maimed shot lynched

and made to disappear

the way facists have a way

of making people disappear...

dangerous and courageous times...

times of music changing

times of art changing

times of laws changing

and even some people changing...

changing times...

times of yg people challenging

elders about facing the limits

of some of their ways and their times...

questioning times...

times demanding real answers...

critical times...

times of malcolm hurling his flesh

and his incendiary commitment

headlong into the whirlwind!...

times of black workers

bankrupting racist alabama bus companies

feetfirst...

sick and tired times

of fannie lou krashin lbj's

big ol' undemocratic

false show house party...

magic times...tragic times...

dreamy times...nightmarish times...

times of brothers comin back

from 'nam in pieces

times of cia capsizin lumumba

and others like him

and instituting the genocide

of low intensity warfare in its place...

blessed times...cursed times?...

martin's roughside mountainclimbin

tough times...

times of fidel and che

comin down from the mountains

to make peoples power real

after first makin peoples war rt!...

rough times...reckless times...

revolutionary times...

times of wild pigs and troopers

shootin at emptyarmed black mothers

after shootin at their sons

whether they were runnin or not

or resistin or not...

times of a whole lotta funerals...

times of this nat'l order

feasting off flesh and famine

and hard as hell on the rest of humanity...

insane times...bloodstained times...

times of people movin and marchin

to stop the madness...

times at times romantic

but often nasty like napalm times...

times at times so evil

it made eric dolphy's brokenheart stop

somewhere between his 'be' and his 'bop'

at 30 something

even though he was far away

in a safe place at the time...

tearing times...tearing times...

thunderous and wonderous times

like elvin and philly jo jones times...

tryin times...cryin times...

high flyin times...

hot hard heavy and heroic times...

in those times

under those conditions

upon the ghostly shoulders

of underground gone ancestors

this man

this lone bold loving soul of a man...

this man

this gentle man

of the soft ankhified electric eyes...

this man

obsessed with peace

like the drum major for justice

was obsessed with peace...

this man

this very brave enchanted man

seeking to be a force for real good...

this man

took those times

by the bell of his tenor

and burrowed laserlike

thru the pain and love and fury of it all...

this man

took those times

those hot hard heavy and heroic times

by the smoke of his searing soprano

and wiped the blood from the face

of the stars falling from the sky

of those times

and he poured and he poured and he poured

andpouredandpouredandpouredandpoured

from wells ancient deep within him

onto the forever of our ears

and the eternal of our eyes

until

there was nothing left

nothing

but the voluminous print

of him

trying to cradle those times

to make them better...

...he wanted to be

a force to help set us free

so we all

cd truly have

our dignity...

©2000 all rights reserved

'bro. zayid'

Author affiliation:

Bro. Zayid Muhammad is a social activist and minister in the New Black Panther Party in Newark, New Jersey.