January 2012
89 posts
Broken Open Poem from Pariah
This is from the film Pariah which you should go see. Theater list on the website here.
PARIAH
Heartbreak opens onto the sunrise
For even breaking is opening
And I am broken
I am open
See the love shine in through my cracks
See the light shine out from me
My spirit takes journey
My spirit takes flight
And I am not running
I am choosing
I am broken
I am broken open
Breaking is freeing
Broken is freedom
I am not broken
I am free
I Must Become A Menace To My Enemies: june jordan →
ancestryinprogress.tumblr.com
Dedicated to the Poet Agostinho Neto,
President of The People’s Republic of Angola: 1976
1
I will no longer lightly walk behind
a one of you who fear me:
Be afraid.
I plan to give you reasons for your jumpy fits
and facial tics
I will not walk politely on the pavements anymore
and this is dedicated in particular
to those who hear my footsteps
or the insubstantial rattling of my grocery
cart
then turn around
see me
and hurry on
away from this impressive terror I must be:
I plan to blossom bloody on an afternoon
surrounded by my comrades singing
terrible revenge in merciless
accelerating
rhythms
But
I have watched a blind man studying his face.
I have set the table in the evening and sat down
to eat the news.
Regularly
I have gone to sleep.
There is no one to forgive me.
The dead do not give a damn.
I live like a lover
who drops her dime into the phone
just as the subway shakes into the station
wasting her message
canceling the question of her call:
fulminating or forgetful but late
and always after the fact that could save or
condemn me
I must become the action of my fate.
2
How many of my brothers and my sisters
will they kill
before I teach myself
retaliation?
Shall we pick a number?
South Africa for instance:
do we agree that more than ten thousand
in less than a year but that less than
five thousand slaughtered in more than six
months will
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME?
I must become a menace to my enemies.
3
And if I
if I ever let you slide
who should be extirpated from my universe
who should be cauterized from earth
completely
then let my body fail my soul
in its bedeviled lecheries
And if I
if I ever let love go
because the hatred and the whisperings
become a phantom dictate I obey in lieu of impulse and realities
(the blossoming flamingos of my
wild mimosa trees)
then let love freeze me
out.
I must become
I must become a menace to my enemies.
Will Fawzia Koofi Be Afghanistan's First Female President? →
thedailybeast.com
The day I was born was the day I was supposed to die.
~Fawzia Koofi, a quote from her book, The Favored Daughter
“oppression/ makes us love one another badly/ makes our breathing
mangled/ while i am desperately trying to clear the air…” —Ntozake Shange (Program Note)
mangled/ while i am desperately trying to clear the air…” —Ntozake Shange (Program Note)
My desi father's comments about the Occupy Movement:
- (watching news)
- Him: Anger is bad but anger for the right reason is excellent. They're angry for the right reason.
- Him: I will punch a police officer if he sprays me in the eyes.
- Him: My hands are big.
- Him: STUPID FAT POLICEMAN.
- Him: Allah will set these cruel idiots on fire. InshaAllah.
- Him: I like the chant's rhythm, yes? We are the 99 percentage!
- Him: Percent? Okay, same thing. Almost.
- Him: No Occupy movement in Pakistan. This part of the world is the 99% compared to the American population.
- Him: Somebody should hire me as a political analyst.
- Him: You will check if my spellings and grammar is fine, okay?
- Him: Corporate evils!
- Him: Our police looks better in front of these fools.
- Him: HIS TUMMY IS SO BIG. Evil, corrupt people have either very big tummies or are terribly thin. The banker is thin. The cop is thick. Both look evil here.
- Him: Are you listening to me, hmm?
