Don't let the fascist speak
"Don't let the fascist speak."
"We want to hear what they have to say."
"Keep them out of the classroom."
"Everybody is entitled to freedom of speech."
I am a child of America
a step child
raised in the back room
yet taught
taught how to act
in her front room
my mind jumps
the voices of students
screaming
insults threats
"Let the Nazis speak."
"Let the Nazis speak."
Everyone is entitled
to speak
I sit a greasy-legged
Black child
in a Black school
in the Black part of town
look to a Black teacher
the bill of rights
guarantees
us all the right
my mind
remembers chants
article I article I
& my innards churn
they remember
the Black teacher
in the Black school
in the Black part
of the very white town
who stopped us
when we attacked
the puppet principal
the white Board
of mis-Education
cast-off books
illustrated with
cartoons and
words of wisdom
written by white
children in the
other part of town
missing pages
caricatures
of hanging niggers -
the bill of rights
was written to
protect
us
my mind remembers
& my innards churn
conjure images
police
break up
illegal demonstrations
illegal assemblies
conjure image
of a Black Panther
"if tricky Dick
tries to stop us
we'll stop him."
conjure image
of that same Black man
going to jail
for threatening
the life of
THE PRESIDENT
every citizen
is entitled to
freedom of speech
my mind remembers
& my innards churn
conjure images
of jews in camps -
of homosexuals in camps -
of socialists in camps -
"Let the Nazis speak."
"Let the Nazis speak."
faces in a college
classroom
"You're being fascist too."
"We want to hear what
they have to say."
faces in
a college classroom
young white faces
speak let them speak
speak let them speak
Blacks jews some whites
seize the bull horn
"We don't want to hear
your socialist rhetoric"
socialist rhetoric
survival
rhetoric
the supreme court
says it is illegal
to scream fire
in a crowded theatre
to scream fire
in a crowded theatre
cause people to panic
to run to hurt each other
my mind remembers
& now i know
what my innards
say
illegal to cause
people
to panic
to run
to hurt
there is
no contradiction
what the Nazis say
will cause
people
to hurt
ME.