The Third World is in America, 2005 Katrina

The Third World is in America

Who knew?

Surely those of use who think for ourselves

Have eyes to see

And know different versions of history

Race and class

Always has been and always will be

The big divide

IN 2005, it is between

Those who got out and those who were left Behind

Those who were told to corral

Like animals to the Dome

And nary one preparation was made for their comfort, lives or survival—

Alien in your own home

They could have piped in chemicals and only then, in the aftermath, like now

Would the world be stunned to know:

This truth

Black and poor, has no currency, value, relevance, consequence or need

Brought plain to see

The Revolutions are televised in the 21^st century

Showing: The third world herd mentality

Right here People: The lack of choice reality

The not thinking and living proactively with nothing but children story at eleven

For us to ooze empathy, sadness and powerlessness

Of the world we have created

Silent SOS for America’s lies and lives

“We are so calm when we are being killed daily, slowly, sweetly, innocently, with gaiety”

Sent to salvation with no air, water, bread, food, shower or toilet

Stolen breath, gifted deaths

Six days in the last of multiple hundred years do not get out of your holocaust jail term

The stench continues

The Third World is in America

They stayed behind to Love Katrina

To get to know her

And as with all love affairs

Claim her in the depth, the moment of her abuse that she shares

And who said Katrina was a woman?

The Third World is in America

Refugees even in your own state: land and home

Roaming, shifting, shipping, busing, airlifting, standing, waiting, dying

Looting, raping, murdering, fighting, soaking, stinking

Withering, shriveling away in dirty water and dry heat

Stuck in America

Not just in Africa, India, Mexico, Trinidad or Indonesia,

The Third World is in New Orleans

Before, during and after slavery

What has changed?

Black folk still without choice and options

Dead in the water is reserved

Fire next time?

No, this time it was depth and dearth

The Third World is in America

And Ground Zero is below zero,

Below the belt, under the belt

The Black Belt, South

Source and place of casual calamity, storm collateral

Wholesale abandonment and neglect

            This the Dirty South remember

Our rappers state with pride

Where all the bling blingers at

The ones who role up to Miami Video Award shows in yachts and other money racers

The ones with the Bentleys, the bikes, the Mercedes

The ones with all the cars and homes in the MTV Cribs shows

Bling bling that M_ F_

Y’all really big pimpin’

Your people ain’t got house, window or a pot to piss in

The have roofs to stand on though

To watch the water rise and with it their futility, rinsing, soiling futures and dashed hopes

Of the American dream

Destroyed once again.

How many times will it survive?

Seventy times seven

Isn’t that the call, the folklore and our pacification?

            The Third World is in America

For all the world to see

Dirty drawers, cover alls

The cover ups are coming

And all the fake

After the fact crackers, black and white

Are on TV benefits, raising, giving and sharing money now

When they should have been doing it then:

Before now, yesterday, last week, last month, last year, last tide, last tragedy, last strategy

Where is our organization?

Instead of all the rampant consumerism

Nevertheless, memories will be short lived and we will go on as before knowing

The Third World is in America

It always has been                                                      

                                                                                    11:59pm Tuesday, September 06, 2005


http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/remembering_katrina_five_years.html