Survival: A Chant

(for Malcolm, Martin and Medgar)

Paint this joy upon the World's canvas;
that despite lynching, bombing,
dirty deeds, we living seeds of a Bantu
Nation live and breathe amidst the trials
and madness of Anglo-sponsored
profiteers, spawn of puritans, new breed
pioneers raping this world with Saxon greed.
We are Thirty Million strong, bred from auction
blocks of chained chattels. Slaves!--bought and
sold like tamed cattle--now produce astronauts,
rocket scientists, while sermons from
slain kings rattle in America's frigid ears.