Out of the sidewalks & into the streets
Out of the sidewalks & into the streets
Out of the sidewalks & into the streets
If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

Hey hey, ho ho, these killer cops have got to go
Hey hey, ho ho, these killer cops have got to go
Hey hey, ho ho, these killer cops have got to go
If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

If we don’t get it shut it down
If we don’t get it shut it down
WE DON’T GET IT
SHUT IT DOWN
If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

Eric Garner, Michael Brown, shut it down, shut it down
Democracy? Drop your ballot, hit the streets
That’s right: see what democracy looks like
This is what democracy looks like
That’s right: see what democracy looks like
Democracy looks like this:
If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

Oh Martin, Martin, Martin, Martin
We shall over-,
we shall over-,
we shall overcome someday

If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

To him who overcomes I’ll drum up the right
to eat of that tree of life
To her who lasts beyond the blast of society
death’s second wrath will be denied her
To those who overcome I’ll give some
hidden manna and one white stone with
a name inside known to the receiver alone
To the receiver alone
To those who last to the end I give
a bit of my father’s scepter
she’ll break with an iron rod
he’ll wear the morning star
oh know who you are
know whose you are
See overcomers will wear white and I’ll
write their name in that book of life
Overcomers become pillars in the
temple of God
Overcomes see the sights
and overcomers know what’s right
then overcomers read the times
so overcomers can call out crimes
If you last beyond the past inherited you’ll see:
Sit beside me on my throne
you’ll listen to the spirit’s groans to the churches
how he groans in ways that words cannot convey

Oh Martin, Martin, Martin, Martin ::

We shall over-,
we shall over-,
we shall overcome someday

If there’s no justice, gonna be no peace,
until there’s no more killer police

Eric Garner, Michael Brown, shut it down, shut it down
Rika Boyd, they gunned her down, shut it down, shut it down
Aiyanna Jone, gunned her down, Miriam Carey, they gunned her down,
Yvette Smith, Tyisha Miller, Kathryn Johnston, Gabriella Nevarez
Pearlie Golden at 90 gunned down
Tarika Wilson, at 90 gunned down

If I read each one it’d be an half-hour long song
Did the math: 31 minutes, 51 seconds wrong
And I know we’re but a breath of life
but some men kick the wind right out of us
right out of us too soon in time
See I think a life’s worth more than a second
but will you take a second to think
on the lives cut short this year?

 

 

---

:: about the 54 poems written at 27 ::

After much deliberation, I decided to keep the whole tradition of doubling my age and writing that many poems in a year. You’ll notice that April Thirtyish has already passed, so I’m late in posting. I’ve gotten about half of them written and will begin posting this week.

I started this whole mess with 46 poems written at 23, most of which are still up on the site and many of which are awful. Those poems I wrote because I read somewhere that the best age for poetry is 23. I was turning 24 and had an existential crisis.

Then I got over it.

Suddenly I was 25 and thought, “Why not do it again?” So I doubled my age and wrote 50 poems at 25. Again, most of these are still on the site and I’m proud of one or two of them.

Now I’m twenty-eight and it’s almost a principle, almost an undeniable fact of life. When the wild Lancelot is in his native habitat and his age is in an odd year, he will be secreting poetry. I do this because poetry is important, because we must take an active role in the creation of new language or else our language dies.

That means I must write, I must learn how to create better poems even if I’m awful at it — everyone must because the fate of our culture’s at stake. For me, this year, that’s 54 poems at 27.

So I’ll schedule these suckers out and give it a go. Follow along with the category 54 @ 27.

cover image by Dorret

[thrive_leads id=’10721′]