~ for June Jordan

we will not contest the shadow to skin ratio
of love to pain
you came planner and fighter
teacher, poet and giver
you sacrificed
we reaped
you had humor and friends
you gave us anthems
(and there are none without blood)
then your clear spirit passed thru twilight

entombed in commemorations of necessary slaughter
your well words bubble up from national burial grounds
as we shake and chant lionhearts of undead ancestors

after may will come The People’s Summer
the rights of June

©Kamaria Muntu
Republished with permission from the book “This Peace of Place: The Political Poetry of Kamaria Muntu 1990-2012”