Marvin X poem for the Living Dead

The Living Dead

I look into my people's eyes
see the hollowness within
I wonder where their spirit went
the hope of yesterday
the zombie stares
he walks away
why have we come to this
why is that stare so far away?
for sure the end is near.

Love has turned to hate these days
there is no love in those eyes
no memory of the men and women
who suffered fought and died

O, dead too lazy to die
O dead that hope passed by
what will come of you
but did not Lazarus come alive?
Come alive then, O living dead.
Come alive
you blind to tomorrow's light
come alive
the spirit of our saints command you, Rise!
Strike the blindness from your eyes.

--Marvin X
from Liberation Poems for North American Africans, Marvin X, Al Kitab Sudan Press (Black Bird Press), 1983.