Poor People

For Cornel and Tavis

Marvin X is the poorest famous person I ever met.--Toya Carter

Stay poor, Marvin, it will keep you honest and truthful.--Dr. Nathan Hare



We are poor people
kidnapped dispossessed
we are poor people
chattel slaves
wage slaves no slave (job)
we are poor people
we survive on love
we survive on hate
we hunt we prey on other poor
we sell our souls we sell our bodies
we sell our minds
just to eat to feed our children
we are poor people
having nothing never starving
often on the brink
sometimes we feast
get drunk get loaded
fight Saturday night
fuck Sunday morning
we are poor people
in our ignorance
we know something is wrong
something stinks
we call on God we call on Jesus
we call on Allah we call the doctor
we call our mama
to help us understand why
we are poor people
why we have no land want no land
why our leaders are dead or silent
crucified by the police starved by the politicians
our leaders
why we birth them
but do not protect them
we are poor people
we visit the rich
we stare in wonder
the plush life
we know we don't belong
we excuse ourselves
return to the ghetto
now we feel at home
now we feel a man
even with nothing
a man
not a smiling buffon
a man
no Master Charge
a man
no 30 year mortgage
a man
no winter in Jamaica
a man.

--Marvin X

from Selected Poems by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1979. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com