--Abiodun Oyewole, 1970*
"I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."
--George W. Bush, 2007
* When the Revolution Comes
The Last Poets
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes some of us will probably catch it on TV with
chicken hanging from our mouths
You'll know its revolution cause there won't be no commercials
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
Preacher pimps are gonna split the scene with the communion wine stuck in
their back pockets
Fagots wont be so funny then and all the junkies will quit their noddin and
wake up when the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
Transit cops will be crushed by the trains after losing their guns and
blood will run through the streets of Harlem drowning anything without substance
when the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
Our pearly white teeth froth the mouths that speak of revolution without
reverence
The cost of revolution is 360 degrees understand the cycle that never
ends
Understand the beginning to be the end and nothing is in between but space
and time that I make or you make to relate or not to relate to the world outside
my mind your mind
Speak not of revolution until you are ready to eat rats to survive
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes guns and rifles will be taking the place of poems
and essays
Black cultural centers will forts supplying the revolutionaries
with food and arms when the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
White death will froth the walls of museums and churches breaking the lies
that enslaved our mothers when the revolution comes
When the revolution comes Jesus Christ is gonna be standing on the corner
of Lenox Ave and 125th St trying to catch the first gypsy cab out of Harlem when
the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
Jew merchants will give away matza balls and gifilta fish to anyone they
see with afros
Frank Shieffin will give away the Apollo to the first person he sees
wearing a blue dashiki when the revolution comes
When the revolution comes afros gone be trying to straightened their heads
and straighten heads gone be tryin to wear afros
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
But until then you know and I know niggers will party and bullshit and
party and bullshit and party and bullshit and party and bullshit and
party...
Some might even die before the revolution comes
