Welcome to
enjoy the best shoot-outs
on and off
the big screen
welcome to
smile at the helicopters
passing
over the backyards
to make it
clear that fear exists
welcome to
experience the sweetest torture
to win wars
in foreign lands
to make
money in foreign lands
to impose
ideas on foreign lands
welcome to
enjoy a fast food
fast read,
fast friendship, fast sex,
and hurry
so you don’t miss the train of fame
and the
American Dream.
Three
helicopters fly over my house
they come
and go in circles
People
cross the street quickly
the noise
in the sky doesn’t allow me to lose my fear
the noise
in the sky is the new church, new catechism
the new way
of saying that justice has spoken
the white
man still has the power
and that
having a black president is just a coincidence
of time and
space.
I’ll try to
leave without being seen
I'll climb
trees and hide in the branches
I’ll make a
nest with the birds who offer me refuge.
From the
top of this tree I can see more people like me
writing
poetry, more people like me out into the streets to protest
I can see
frightened people, people with rabies
people
wanting revenge.
I don’t
want to live hidden in four walls of fear
I want to
say that here I am
with all my
verses ready to shoot my words
to strafe
my poem in their faces
and in
response be killed in self-defense
with the
permission of justice
and the
inevitable problem of the color of my skin.
© Adrian
Oakland,
15-16 July, 2013
Translation
by Nina Serrano
-Helicopters
photos by Adrian-
