splitting
skin (for Muhammad Ali)
by ‘bro. zayid’
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee…
he
floated into our hearts
a
bold blaze of glory…
jabbing
splitting
skin…
his
reflex raw mind
seeking
the power of truth
waaay
beyond the land of left hooks…
came
and upset the gamblers dens’ books…
and
he came to us
at
just the right time…
after
medgar’s rifleripped back
exploded
in our guts
after
bombbursted pieces
of
four little black girls
branded
our eyes
and
cursed our fears and tears
when
malcolm’s splattered blood
was
still hot
burning
all of our eyes…
that’s
when he came to us!
strident
on
his toes
armed
with machine gun handspeed
with
this blows…
the
clear heir
to
the lethal sweet of sugar ray’s throne
he
loved to play
but
was warrior to the bone…
fought
like hell
answered
every bell of his time
with
his combat cold heart
and
his fast handed rhyme…
he
came to us
floating
with
a champagne golden confidence
crying
to
be born in us all…
and
when he dared to drop his slave name
and
to take his swordwielding
ancestral
name instead
after
a commercial façade of American popularity
u
wd’ve thought they wanted him dead…
and
when he refused to be
one
of their ‘boys’
one
of their war machines ‘toys’
they
stripped him of everything he had…
reminiscient
of their banning
paul
robeson’s existence….
but
his was an undying resistance…
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee
he
was put here to transcend their decrees…
he
was put here to take the streets
with
the yg in the thousands
and
their protesting feet…
put
here to stand with martin
against
the gore of genocidal war…
put
here to destroy
some
of white supremecy’s biggest white lies
put
here to show us
that
black is indeed beautiful
right
before our very bloodburned eyes…
gave
our people and the world’s oppressed
such
a cranecocked cloudlicking lift
maybe
just
maybe
he
was one of god’s gifts…
a
windslicing
beacon
of black pride
put
here to rise above it all
like
an earthbound star
baptized
in sacrificed black blood
refusing
to be denied…
stinging
like a bee
he
was put here to transcend their decrees…
put
here to transcend
even
the mortal limits of his prime
they
took all of that away from him
and
nobody calls that a crime!...
jabbing
splitting
skin
his
right hand lead
forever
faster than a speeding bullet
carrying
a continent of courage
on
his fearless shoulders
and
in the sparkle of his eyes
for
a longbeaten blue people
bearing
the power of truth
well
beyond the land of left hooks…
audacious
survivor
went
to the lumumba’s congo
and
again upset the gamblers dens’ books…
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee
he
was put here to transcend their decrees…
and
after the ring lights dimmed
he
came again and became a torchlight for peace
actually
got between saddam and bush
in
the middle east
forestalled
a war
even
got several u.s. hostages free
extended
his legend again
for
whole world cd see…
so
now he is somewhere dancing circles
around
our enemies in the spirit world’s wars…
somewhere
he is still dancing
still
blinding time with his hands
like
a charlie parker run
at
war with the devil
and
making it all look like fun…
forever
a triumphant echo
on
mountains of eyes and stages
forever
in the ears in the annals of the ages…
forever
will his magic
make
us smile and call out his name
as
he leaps from history’s screens and pages
a
giant in defiance
falcon
fierce and butterfly courageous…
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee
stinging
like a bee
he
was put here to transcend
their
decrees…
