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?
(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?
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