Shirley Staples: Getting It Together

i have awakened from my dream world of reactionary flowers and have clothed myself in fibres of liberation upon my head i have placed the garland of revolution      Poets spoke      of wars      and brothers      rapped      away the time      and all i could do      was speak of      white roses      and daisies      crosses were being burned—      justice was being denied      bullets were stilling lives      and yet i marvelled at      unrealistic      flower gardens      until           WEEDS of Don Lee, Ameer Baraka, Giovanni, Pfister           and others made      my rose petals wither      and the thorns      of the rose      pricked      my finger      and i saw real blood i speak no more of white lilies and the magnolias no longer smell sweet my reactionary flower world      is non-existant      and i listen      as the revolutionary      Weeds of Reality rap to me and as the last wilted flower dries up in the sands of changing times i get my thing Together.

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