For My Own Protection — Essex Hemphill (1992)
I want to start an organization
to save my life.
If whales, snails, dogs, cats
Chrysler and Nixon can be saved,
the lives of Black men are priceless
and can be saved.
We should be able to save each other.
I don’t want to wait for the Heritage Foundation
to release a study saying
Black people are extinct.
I don’t want to be the living dead
pacified with drugs, sex and rock-n-roll.
If a human chain be formed
around nuclear missile sites,
then surely Black men can form
human chains around Anacostia, Harlem
South Africa, Wall Street, Hollywood
each other.
If we have to take tomorrow with blood
are we ready?
Do our s curls and dreadlocks and phillies
make us any more ready than a bush or a conkaline?
I’m not concerned
about the attire of a soldier.
All I want to know
for my own protection
is are we capable
of whatever
whenever.
