Poet Marvin X/El Muhajir at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland City Hall, Black Arts Movement Business District, co-founded by Marvin X, passed by the Oakland City Council, January 19, 2016
photo Pendarvis Harshaw
I can't believe in death
I look at Mama and Daddy
every day on my cell phone
wallpaper
I can't believe in death
I think of my lovers gone to heaven
I kiss them
ask forgiveness for my sins
in violation of their unconditional love for me
I can't believe in death
My son walked into a train
yet he is here beside me on the Freedom Train
I can't get over him telling me
"Dad, I'm going to preach your funeral
tell every secret thing about you."
Yet I buried him
buried him deep in my heart for a thousand forevers
kiss him
hug him for the 39 years I enjoyed him
who walked like me
talked like me
laughed like me
yet beyond me
Gibran told us
your children are not you
they come through you
like arrow released from bow
I can't believe in death
life is a moment at best
cherish moments
sweetness and bitter
moments none the less
life is a moment
enjoy the moment
before the moment of eternity arrives
after tears
wailing in the night early morn
we adjust
we heal
we love
not overnight
closure is never never land
we cannot close the heart of love with good-bye
our beloved is not buried in earth with skin bones for worms butterflies
as-salaam alaikum never will suffice
no matter instant burials Muslim fashion
long drawn out death rituals in our African tradition
I can't believe in death
Africans say
only death
to be forgotten
let us never forget ancestors
love them in our daily round
call their names
honor them praise them
dance to them
holy dance of joy happiness.
for getting us to this moment
after tears in the night
we heal with cement of love
flooding our empty spaces with flowers of love
roses carnations gladiolus birds of paradise
candles food for the departed who linger
after all
we stand upon their shoulders
cannot walk on the right path
without their guidance
stay with us always
focus us on understanding
good times and bad
yin and yang of life
sunshine and rain
joy and pain
Frankie Beverly
Ma'at.
mizan
feather on the scale
Judgment Hall Kemit
life and death indivisible
eternal moment in the sun.
No attachments but to Allah
Eternal.
men women come go
wives husbands
children
Allah Eternal
Yahya/John
Life Giver.
I can't believe in death
elders then ancestors
then birth of wonder children
"Grandpa you can't save the world
but I can," said Jahmeel to me at three
mysterious genius children
let Gibran's arrow fly
let our children soar
with ancient wisdom
mixed with Afro futurism
Sun Ra, Octavia Butler style
We are from a world our children shall never know
they are from a world we shall never know
unless we connect with honor respect
due elders
What you know at 20
you shall know better at 75.
kick yourself for being a fool at 20
you didn't know it all
knew nothing really
pretended you did
faked the funk
survived because the Lord was your Shepard
He dressed you in the armor of His love
Protection Shield saved you for sure death
only after you submitted and crossed the road
from hell to heaven/paradise
wherein rivers flow and gardens of flagrant flowers
jasmin
myrrh frankincense burning filling our senses with goodness
I can't believe in death
If you don't know how to pick cotton
elder teach you
you teach those after you
circle unbroken.
I can't believe in death.
--Marvin X
10/1/18