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

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
The Abandon Biden Campaign
01 Mar 2024
Jaylani Husseini joins us to discuss the Abandon Biden campaign, the results of the Michigan primary uncommitted campaign, and Israeli war crimes in Gaza
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Moise Assassination Investigation, 2004 Coup, and the Impending Occupation of Haiti
01 Mar 2024
Dahoud Andre joins us to discuss the latest indictments in the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, the 2004 coup against Aristide, and the latest US plan for the occupation of Haiti.…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us
28 Feb 2024
Aaron Bushnell was desperate for the world to know what was happening to the people of Gaza. So much so that he died by his own hand, publicly, and in a painful way. But Palestinians are dying…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
STATEMENT: By the Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, Dominique de Villepin, on the situation in Haiti, 25 February 2004
28 Feb 2024
Remembering France’s odious participation in the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti.
Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
Haiti: 20 Years After the Coup
28 Feb 2024
Jemima Pierre’s presentation at a forum to commemorate the US-France-Canada-sponsored 2004 coup d’état in Haiti. The forum was hosted by the Center for Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto…