march on our minds
(for Cuba’s art legend Alberto Lescay)
by ‘bro zayid’
This is for Lescay!
Under this careening blue moon
At a time when fascistic forces
are dangerously roaming all over our fracking punctured earth
Seizing this critical crossroads moment
we humbly come to say to him
that we are grateful
for how he has raised so many of our eyes
and how he has shared our right
to claim such a tall view of our selves
and of our dignity
with so many around the world...
So humbly we come to say to this man
with the soil sweet eyes
with the bronze dipped tongue
but who speaks to us with fingers
armed with the beauty of the boundless human spirit
anchored and muscled with the soul
of our cimaron ancestors...
this great man whose vast body of work
and unapologetic radical intent
says to us so selflessly
‘toma de mi...’take from me
‘toma de mi...’take from me
as one of his most singular works so pointedly says...
‘toma de mi...‘take from me
‘toma de mi...’take from me
he says...
from every inch of his muscular cloud piercing monuments
from every detail of his unleasing of his volley of dreams
in liberating color...
from his honoring of maceo
of marti
of mother mariana...
to his abstract splashes drenching our eyes
with his fusion of our dreams, his dreams
and his dream seeding tall walk among us
bounding all of that together for a liberated future...
this great man whose art rises from the soil
like the machetes of the mambises,
may they march on our minds forever...
this great man whose works
have become architectural wonders
whose body of abstract expressionism
is a dance festival of shango shimmering
sweet strokes of thunder...
this great man of sheer chainbreaking art...
tall high peoples art
rising from the soil like mambisi machetes...
tall high unifying art
lifting our eyes way beyond pico turquino’s height
calling us to claim our liberated dreams...
we come to this man,
this great man whose vast odyssey of art
says to us so selflessly from his huge heart
‘toma de mi’ ... ‘take from me
‘toma de mi ... ‘take from me...
we come to this great man who has given us
so much so selflessly so consistently
for so long
to say to him
from the fullest places of our hearts
who he has claimed and cleansed over the art landscape
of marti’s america,
we come humbly to him now
to say to him in return
‘toma de nosotros ...’take from us!
‘toma de nosotros ...’take from us!!’...
take from us
our gratitude
take from us
our appreciation
take from us
our humble thanks...
here
now
take it
all of it with the boundless intent
that u have shown us...
here
now
take it
all of it
in return for u having given us
so much
for so long for so strong...
so we, together, may truly seize this moment
for the sake of this earth
and all of us who love her,
and allow for u to take this moment
and bathe in a love,
the people’s love
a love that will make your cherished earthen brown eyes
and your mountainous ancestrally armed fingers
and your heart weaving our hearts together,...
take it
take this moment
take this love
and dance, dance, dance!...
in layers and layers
of our love...
dance, dance, dance!
in layers and layers
of our rhythms
boundless, bold, free...
under this careening blue moon
defying fascism’s dangerous dirty walk
and climbing beyond capitalism’s draining bad breath,
with our arms around each other
and around this fracking punctured earth
we dance with u and we say to u
proudly and humbly
‘tomas de nosotros
‘tomas de nosotros
‘tomas de nosotros...
‘take from us
‘take from us
‘take from us...
and dance!...
©2024
