Keith Donnell Jr.
Faith Temple Church of God
February 27, 1965
Here, at this final hour
In this quiet place
Alarm has come.
Dim lit stairwell
Torn from it
Sober eye test hopes
Extinguished
No wind
Gone with us, forever.
Four-alarm is here.
We were kids wandering
Strung lead and fog –
His home of bones
Where his heart was sand
Where his people are –
And ISIS.
The reform lost footing
That we’re meat once again
In alarm – to shard these
Last monuments
Rhythm
Four-alarm
A sewer bin grace
Use to those who have lost air
Half-volt
He ran, dove
Defended air
Donners
Eaten to the death.
It is night in the memory of man
That this drinking gourd
A fortune faked
But, nonetheless, proud
Co-immunity
Half sound
A braver, more gallant
Young sham
Peon.
Then, this Afro-American
Holy before sun
Conquered still eyes.
Say the word again.
Wood ash wants me, too.
Afro-Amor. Icon.
Afro-Amori. Kin.
My clone, who was a mass tear
Wash my stem
Too cool
Us
Just words
No known body returned
A knee to power
Wars
Half off remains of men.
My clone had stopped being a ‘Negro’ years ago.
It had becloned too small, too puny
To wreck a word form.
My clone was badder than that
My clone had becloned
An Afro-American
And he wanted – soul disparity
That we, that all his people
Would beclone Afro-Americans 2.
The roar of those
Who wall
Consider it their duty
As friend zone, still,
We grow
People total us.
To revive hymn
Tough lovin’ from the prisms of memory
To save ourselves by riding harm out of history
Of our turbulent times
Money will ask what alarm fires
To Donner in this
Stormy
Controversial
And bold young craps hand –
And we wall miles.
Many wall Sister away
Airway.
Frame this man
For he is not a man
But tandem:
A sermon, a subverter, and anemone
All that Black man –
And we wall miles.
They will say that he is half ape
An attic fan, sun-kissed
Whole canon liberating evil
Tooth decause fork wrench stew rubble
And dwell
And swear
And dismay. To them:
Delude every tattoo, Brother, my clone
Delude every touch.
Humor, have harm smile at you.
Did you ever really glisten to him?
Did he ever di Amin thing?
Wash me over
Hymn Sale
Assassinated with violins
Or any public disco dance. For if you do you
Were now him, and you
If you knew harm, you, widow
Wide
We missed so near him.
Malcolm was our human donor
Our loving main back road
This was his meaning to his people
And in honoring him
We honor the blast out our cells.
Laughter from a rich hero
To the sewer dystopia
Friends!
Our journey!
He slays, is all mist, undead
And I laugh a much-braided rope.
Scan when eyes start to doubt
Which eyeball’s evil
Odd new life
And demand siphon
Tour struggle for free
Demand honor and dig
Not in these lights.
I am writing to set hinges soft
In your wall
No artifact
The dream in dust
Some paths end up port
Wade among we African strays
Forearm. Human rights
Strangled.
The main thing is that we keep a unit fronted here
In our most volatile time and memory.
Wall not to be washed
Filleting each other, however, we may
Dream deferred within
Our wrist
We’re shackled
Reboot him
And his value as a man
Light his going from us
Sever only to bring us together
New.
Consign these mortal remains
To earth
The common mother
And fall.
Seek core in the knowledge
That what we lace
Pinned to gown
ICE no more
Now
Amen
But acid wash
After the winter of our discontent.
Wall came forth again
To me, dust
And we will know him then
For what he was
And is –
A brick
Our own Black shining brick!
Who didn’t hesitate to fly
Because he loved us so.
Keith Donnell Jr. is a Bay Area-based poet and book editor. His first collection, The Move (Nomadic Press), is forthcoming in Summer 2021. He can be reached online at www.keithdonnelljr.com.
Rewriting History: The poet Keith Donnell rewrites history be recasting and reassembling Ossie Davis' eulogy for Malcolm X (below). The family of Malcolm X last week released a deathbed confession by an undercover New York City police officer that calls into the question the circumstances of Malcolm's death.
Read The Letter
Keith Donnell reads "Eulogy Delivered by Ossie Davis at the Funeral of Malcolm X"