showtime
if you haven’t heard
the call by now
you aren’t ready.
if you didn’t see
those pigs
murder that boy
you weren’t
made for this.
relax, you might
miss your
television program.
dear mr. president
the same
blackness
we voted for
attacked us
at our core.
change came
and we went
right back
to war.
where’s
the hope
and free coats
for the poor.
On Sept. 15, 1963, klansmen bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., killing (top right, clockwise) Cynthia Wesley, 14; Carole Robertson, 14; Denise McNair, 11 and Addie Mae Collins, 14.
dynamite hill
grown men
sprayed fire hoses
on small children.
governors
dropped bombs
on wooden churches.
they say god
was well and alive
back then
yet klansmen
ruled the world.
this was the world
they called
Birmingham
in the nineteen sixties.
full refund
i’m not giving
jesus
one more dime.
not one more dime
until he
stops these pigs
from killing
black folks
all the time.
Lamont Lilly is a writer, poet and organizer. He is a member of the Durham branch of Workers World Party. Go to workers.org to read more of his poetry.
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