01 junho 2017

Poem for Black boys

Nikki Giovanni

(With special love to James)

Where are your heroes, my little Black ones
You are the Indian you so disdainfully shoot
Not the big bad sheriff on his faggoty white horse

You should play run-away-slave
Or Mau Mau
These are more in line with your history

Ask your mothers for a Rap Brown gun
Santa just may comply if you wish hard enough
Ask for CULLURD instead of Monopoly
DO NOT SIT IN DO NOT FOLLOW KING
GO DIRECTLY TO STREETS
This is a game you can win.

As you sit there with all your understanding eyes
You know the truth of what I’m saying
Play Back-to-Black
Grow a natural and practice vandalism
These are useful games (some say a skill even
learned)

There is a new game I must tell you of
It’s called Catch The Leader Lying
(and knowing your sense of absurd
you will enjoy this)

Also a company called Revolution has just issued
A special kit for little boys
Called Burn Baby
I’m told it has full instructions on how to siphon gas
And fill a bottle

Then our old friend Hide and Seek becomes valid
Because we have much to seek and ourselves to hide
From a lecherous dog

And this poem I give is worth much more
Than any nickle bag
Or ten cent toy
And you will understand all too soon
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes
You must invent your own games and teach us old
Ones how to play.

Fonte (estrofes 1 e 2): Pereira, E. A., org. 2010. Um tigre na floresta de signos. BH, Maza Edições. Poema datado de 1967. ‘Nikki Giovanni’ é a assinatura literária de Yolande Cornelia Giovanni.

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