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amerkkkcan nightmare 
(RESIST!)

Kelsey Ogbewe

“I don't see any American dream. I see an American nightmare.”
— Malcolm X
“The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist the forces that are trying to
repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.”
— Mumia Abu Jamal

koute vwa la libète kap chante lan kè nou!

I.

amerikkka,
(WAKE UP!)
amerikkka,
(WAKE UP!)
amerikkka,
(WAKE UP!)


the murky hues of history
color my views of them boys in blue.


amerikkka,
(WAKE UP!)


your obsession with Nixon-era,
“law and order” politicking back-burners
Black personhood & i can’t stand that shit.
you put trauma on trial, then strip flesh from bone
& leave bone-dry corpses to rot on dusty streets.
you pile our bodies on concrete plates
& serve us up as food for FOX News maggots.
with cold disregard for our souls,
you force our families to bury our dreams
beneath city settlements
& white liberal schemes to get rich.
shit, you got some nerve
to wonder why scorched earth
replies with third-degree burns.

koupe tèt, boule kay! kounye a!

the ground witnesses a murder scene,
& you mean to tell me that you’re blind to your crooked ways?
you praise crooked cops who stop & frisk folk
for fear of free passage.
through crooked smiles,
you quote off-top Christian scripts to force forgiveness
while my niggas suffocate under death grips from them pigs,
them agents of state.

hold on.
shh-shh.
wait.


 

don’t you hear the splitting
shrieks of a Black man’s inner child
howling for you to lift your boot off his neck?
it’s a fight-or-flight-risk-his-life type response, he knows.
but he’ll do anything for freedom.
he’ll do anything to escape this dark
pavement purgatory . . .

II.

amerikkka,
(WAKE UP!
)

. . . paske se sel Mama ki ka vin deplace’m.

Black man cries out for Mama’s
arms to snatch back his breath.

Black man fills the air with cussing
& spit, struggling to remove
a pig’s boot off his neck.

Black man, with diasporic blood
boiling in his veins, strong-arm
resists a bullshit arrest.

while fighting back a pacifist’s death,
pieces of pavement scatter
as Black man’s fiery fists beat the ground.

Black smoke billows around the midnight sky.
& the bone-dry scent of scorched earth
burns inside a feral swine’s snout.

& now, this muh’fuckin’ grunting pig squeals for backup.
squad cars rush to crowd Black man’s body.

mais, l’union fait la force!

but his kinfolk, his comrades, rush with bats
& poles to protect to his soul.
now a cluster of dark, bloodshot clouds
looms above this posse of pigs’ heads.

tande’m kounye a!
tande nou kounye a!

Black man knows this type of protest
ain’t gon’ throw his soul into purgatory.
ain’t no more waiting for Mama to rest his bones
in a cemetery near Dalamar Street to speak his peace.

you see, the blood in Black man’s eyes,
as red as anti-colonial struggles,

mwen soti Ayiti!

as red as Ayiti’s band of bloodshed,
as New Afrikan bands of bloodshed,
as New Afrikan love for freedom,
as New Afrikan pride,
will never let him compromise.

the enemy of this sun-kissed New Afrikan
will try to shackle him in cuffs,
will try to snuff out his life behind bars,
will try to snatch away his breath.
& yet, Black man resists

— & resists ‘til Mama
& his kinfolk
& his comrades’ arms
stretch out to give him rest.

FREE MUMIA.
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.
FREE HAITI. FREE PALESTINE.
FREE THE PEOPLE. FREE THE LAND.

Headshot 12.jpg

Kelsey Ogbewe

Kelsey Ogbewe (he/him) is a poet, essayist, and recording artist with a passion for storytelling. He describes himself as a storyteller who finds his voice in rap, nurtures it with jazz, and offers it as poetry. Born and raised in Montgomery County by Nigerian and Haitian parents, Kelsey started writing and performing in 2012. Since then, he has been a regular at Busboys & Poets open mics in Washington, D.C., spoken at local school events, and performed as a guest artist with the Baltimore-based nonprofit Speak Life Tour. 

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