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MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE
SOUNDERS II
(For Abdul Rahman)
 
By Olumide Ted Wilson


Putting paint on drums     notes on canvas
Shaking clay sounds into rhythm and shaping
His art from a mountain in a valley
Containing the stimulus for profundity urging
Political action                 pointed and direct
 
Not a painter    not a musician   not an “artist”
but a clearly defined worker of our culture
soldiering in the army of liberation
assaulting the enemy with brush
with drum with wood and clay
shaking the calabash
in a disarming rhythm
disorienting the boot stepping
power mongering brokers of past and present
 
what a difference a picture says
when it shows the bottom of the barrel
mirroring the results of willie lynch
and the trilateral commission
 
Abdul  your presence raised us
as you stepped from circle to square
gallery to drumroll
designing theater sets and park festivals
piling message upon message
bringing forth spirits in waves of sounds
echoing from your canvas
defying death               assaulting
retaliating against the question:
“What do you do with a former slave
when you no longer need his labor?
 

 
 

  • ISSUE #4 CELEBRATING BLACK MEN
  • Mission and Content
  • POETRY AND PROSE
  • Photography Celebrating Black Men - ICONS AND ANCESTORS - SUSAN J. ROSS
  • ESSAYS SHORT STORIES AND ​LOVE LETTERS
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • About US
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • ISSUE #3 CELEBRATING BLACK CULTURE
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY AND PROSE
  • BLACK MUSIC PHOTO ESSAY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • VISUAL ART GALLERY
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • Support Merge Literary Magazine
  • ISSUE #2 CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • FEATURED WRITERS AND ARTISTS
  • MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • Multimedia Art Review
  • PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
  • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • ISSUE #1 POLITICAL AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
    • Mission and Content
    • About US
    • POETRY
    • PROSE
    • ART ILLUSTRATION
    • ESSAYS AND PLAY
    • MULTI-MEDIA QUILT REVIEW
    • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
    • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • Support Merge Literary Magazine
  • ESSAYS SHORT STORIES AND ​LOVE LETTERS