Sunday, October 14, 2018

Marvin X poem: A real nigga ain't eatin' greens without cornbread

Maestro Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland, 2015
photo collage Adam Turner

A REAL NIGGA AIN'T EATIN' GREENS WITHOUT CORNBREAD

I don't care bout these new age niggas
vegan niggas
die like hog eatin' niggas
different diseases
death is death
he was vegan
yogi rasta kemite vodun
cancer got his ass too
stroke
high blood pressure
didn't want white man's meds
herbal tea death
Back to Eden didn't help
Baraka say you read white man's Back to Eden
won't study Marxism Leninism
fuck all isms schisms
my student say Beligion
just be
real
no fake ass nigga pseudo spiritual rat
vegan rat still rat

Beligion be real
Go with the Kemit Negative Confession


I want cornbread wit ma collard greens
rice is nice
rice ain't cornbread
I'm a rice nigga
Daddy from Kentucky rice land
never ain't no grits in my house
rice fa breakfast rice fa dinner
nigga friends called me
rice eatin Chinaman nigga

Kale is nice
Spinach too
flavored spicy
not like Mama's Spinach
I threw under table
no spice plain Cali girl food
no Louisiana Texas style
Mama born in Cali
South for me was from Oakland to Central Valley Fresno

love spinach now
spicy
Cayenne
Tumeric
Oregano
Garlic onions
Used to love Granny's greens
Oklahoma Arkansas greens
loved to devour cornbread sopped in pot liquor
Begged Granny let me sop cornbread in pot liquor
don't sop all dat pot liquor boy
Loved Granny's hands
Granny had that one book in her trunk I read every time we came to Granny's house
Up from Slavery Booker T
First Black book I read again again at Granny's house
Granny told me stop progin (probin') through her stuff
I proged that trunk til I found Up from Slavery

Today these kids don't know or care about Granny's and Grandpa's hands
feel sorry for 'em
computer addicts
drunk on white supremacy computer
murder games
grown nigga think they NBA coaches
woman said she hit her hip hop man in head with remote control
loved games not her
kicked her in stomach
don't interrupt his games
she left him playing his computer games night and day when off work
security guard

But cornbread
cold water cornbread
African style less grease
collard greens ready now
no matter that weak ass Kale
Collard greens thick like meat
smoked turkey no pork
Wife played game on me
said she bought ham
ready to beat her ass
til she showed me it was turkey ham
spared her ass beating
in my nigga insanity
negrocities (Amiri Baraka term, he told me don't steal his words, give him credit. Elliott Bey asked Baraka why Marvin X don't write about him? Baraka say cause Marvin know I will write about his ass! Love you AB, a brother like no other. AB hep a nigga. )

I expanded his definition Negrocities: inflammation of the Negroid gland at the base of the brain
causing a disruption of normal cognitive function due to
toxic substances in the synapse preventing  messages from one cell to the next
brain dead cell phone addict zombi don't know it's time to eat
wash yo ass
make love to your woman
love your children
Child abuse is don't call your children
but reconciliation is possible
not easy but not impossible
hard work but possible.

I want cornbread in my greens.
I hate that Jiffy shit
but Jiffy do when all else fails
Ain't nothin' like real cornbread
Southern style
melt in mouth
make a nigga shout Jesus! Allah Jah Jehovah Marx Lenin
--Marvin X
10/14/18



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