Enough

Had a poem here somewhere called "Enough" That I'd like to do Because every once in a while A brother gets shot somewhere for no reason A brother gets his head kicked in, for no reason And you wonder just exactly what in the hell is enough And that's what this poem is about It was not enough that we were bought en brought to this home of the slaves Locked in the bowels of a floating shit-house Watching those we loved eaten away by plague and insanity Flesh falling like strips of bark from a termite-infested tree Bones rotting, turning first to brittle ivory, then to resin That was not enough It was not enough that we were chained by leg-irons Black on black in black with a pit stained wall Forced to heed nature's call Through and inside the tattered of rags that stringed our privates And evidently, years of slavery did not appease your need to be superior to something Like a crazed lion hung up on being the king of his corner of the cage Backs bend under the weight of being everything and having nothing Mines too, like boomerangs curving back into themselves Kicked and carved by the face-straining smiles that saved my life That was not enough Somehow I cannot believe that it will be enough For me to melt with you and integrate, without the thoughts of rape and murder I cannot conceive of on peace on earth until I have given you a piece of lead or pipe To end your worthless, motherfucking existence Imagine your nightmares of my sneaking into a veiled or satin bedroom And attacking your daughter, wife and mother, at once Ripping open their bowels sexually like a wishbone Imagine that and magnify it a million times When you realize that the blinders have been stripped from my eyes And I realize that slavery was no smiling, happy fizzies party Your ancestors raped my foremothers and I will not forget I will not forget at Yale or Harvard or Princeton or in Hell, because you are on my mind I see you every time my woman walks down the street with her ass on her shoulders I see you every time I look in the mirror And think of the times I used to pat myself for not being too black after all I think of you morning, noon and night And I wonder just exactly what in hell is enough Every time I see a rope or gun I remember And to top it all off, you ain't through yet Over 50 you have killed in Mississippi since 1963 That doesn't even begin to begin all of those you have maimed, hit and run over, blinded, poisoned, starved or castrated I hope you do not think that a vote for John Kennedy took you off my shit list Because in the street there will only be black and white There will be no Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates or any of the rest of that shit you have used To make me forget to hate There ain't no enough, there ain't no surrender There is only plot and plan, move and groove, kill There is no promised land, there is only the promise The promise is my vow that until we have been nerve-gassed, shot down and murdered or done some of the same ourselves Look over your shoulder motherfucker, I am coming