Vietnam | Black Agenda Report

Kemet Mawakana

26 Mar 2008

🖨️ Print Article

7_foot_poet_upright_250wide Kemet Mawakana (aka “The Seven-Foot Poet”) is a highly acclaimed spoken-word artist, and has published two books A . . . Z . . . Infinity and Crucifixion of My Soul. The collective body of his works presented weekly in BAR are in tribute to Listervelt Middleton, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, and “For The People”. Currently, he is a facilitator at AYA Educational Institute (www.ayaed.com) and can be reached at sevenfootpoet(at)gmail.com.

To read or listen to "Vietnam", please click on the link below.

Vietnam

To listen to the audio of "Vietnam< click the flash player below

Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.

At a young and impressionable age

sealed was his fate.

Taught the enemy was an animal

sub-human

now he’s brainwashed

so that he can start boomin’:

“Boom boom boom yeah I was gunnin’

And then you look and all you see is . . . .”

The enemy’s tiny foothold from within

would not submit or bend;

thus and so the war begins.

“Homies all standin around just hangin
Some dope-dealin some gang-bangin
We decide to roll and we deep . . .”

The American went on a mission called search and destroy

killing men

raping women and girls

and crippling boys.

Napalm strikes by air support

reinforced thoughts

that the enemy was either a criminal

or should be shot for sport.

Because of the undeniable conflict

between his training

and the independent conclusions

reached by his maturing brain

the American turned to narcotics

to put his mind at ease.

“Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out . . .”

But the war won’t end

it can never end for him

until he looks in the mirror and sees

-- he’s Vietnamese.

By Kemit Mawakana (aka The Seven-Foot Poet)

Peace (when appropriate) War (when necessary)

Copyright 2008.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The US Is Determined to Drive a Wedge between Ethiopia and Eritrea
23 Nov 2022
The US seems willing to accept Ethiopia’s defeat of its former puppet, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), if it can just drive a wedge between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Music in Montreal: Our song, “The Internationale!”
23 Nov 2022
Music in Montreal: Our song, “The Internationale!”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Cristina M. Visperas’s Book, “Skin Theory”
23 Nov 2022
This week’s featured author is Cristina Mejia Visperas. Visperas is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California. Her book is Skin Theory: Visual Culture and the…
Tamanisha John
Haiti in the Caribbean: A Political Economy Perspective on the Urgent Crisis of Imperialism
23 Nov 2022
If Haiti is "the poorest country in the hemisphere" it is because imperialist policies continue to impoverish and destabilize that nation.
Hermela Aregawi
Ethiopia Peace Deal: U.S. Proxy War By Other Means?
23 Nov 2022
The people of Ethiopia are understandably relieved that a peace agreement now exists between their government and the TPLF. But aspects of the agreement may allow the U.S. to continue the conflict…