Poetry by Malcolm London
Why you talk like that?
With fake bass in your voice
Like you got foundation
Why you talk like that?
Speak up like police lights on street posts
Up
Like that like
Surveillance
Can you see me?
The cabrini green growing in your esophagus
Talk like you
Waiting to be gentrified
Why you talk like that?
Like coffee?
Black but not strong like they like their coffee
Integrated
Obeying the cream
Talk like a playground
In your lungs
While you hyde park and breathe
In bravado
In belligerence
I see you native to these west side Americas
I hear the colonialism in your dialect
Where you grew up
Where you belonged
Loose squares is a mantra
Slurred words like liquor store was on the corner
Of your cheeks
See your tongue
Crisp and crossed
Like your mamma raise you
On crucifixion
Like she pray
You never come home in a coffin
Like she know
These predators pray
More often
Often you speak like you can make institutions disappear
Like magic
Like voodoo in your veins
Like you dream
Of new order
Or New Orleans
Talk like you immune to Katrina
This hurricane
Of injustice
Why your slang move like
Mississippi did migrated
Into your saliva
Dixie line dictions
Stirred in kitchens
In pots
Of collard greens
Turkey necks
And sweet potato pie
You sweet talk
Like you met at the intersection of Arsenio Hall and Fresh Prince
Transit authority
That transition to 26th and California
Is easy for you
You grew up
Spitting boss
Taste buds grew up
On police brutality
Dished out in cooke county
You spit like you thirsty
Like you been wading in the water
Of parasites and low income
Your mouth didn’t dry suppressing all that struggle
The thesaurus in your throat clogs like a word
But struggle
In other words
You talk like you never been north
Never been freed
Like you ignored
Like you need to be heard
Like your story has a history
You aren’t allowed to know
Like you got something to say
What do you think of poet Malcolm London’s message and meaning? What do you read in his poems?
Why you talk like that?
With fake bass in your voice
Like you got foundation
Why you talk like that?
Speak up like police lights on street posts
Up
Like that like
Surveillance
Can you see me?
The cabrini green growing in your esophagus
Talk like you
Waiting to be gentrified
Why you talk like that?
Like coffee?
Black but not strong like they like their coffee
Integrated
Obeying the cream
Talk like a playground
In your lungs
While you hyde park and breathe
In bravado
In belligerence
I see you native to these west side Americas
I hear the colonialism in your dialect
Where you grew up
Where you belonged
Loose squares is a mantra
Slurred words like liquor store was on the corner
Of your cheeks
See your tongue
Crisp and crossed
Like your mamma raise you
On crucifixion
Like she pray
You never come home in a coffin
Like she know
These predators pray
More often
Often you speak like you can make institutions disappear
Like magic
Like voodoo in your veins
Like you dream
Of new order
Or New Orleans
Talk like you immune to Katrina
This hurricane
Of injustice
Why your slang move like
Mississippi did migrated
Into your saliva
Dixie line dictions
Stirred in kitchens
In pots
Of collard greens
Turkey necks
And sweet potato pie
You sweet talk
Like you met at the intersection of Arsenio Hall and Fresh Prince
Transit authority
That transition to 26th and California
Is easy for you
You grew up
Spitting boss
Taste buds grew up
On police brutality
Dished out in cooke county
You spit like you thirsty
Like you been wading in the water
Of parasites and low income
Your mouth didn’t dry suppressing all that struggle
The thesaurus in your throat clogs like a word
But struggle
In other words
You talk like you never been north
Never been freed
Like you ignored
Like you need to be heard
Like your story has a history
You aren’t allowed to know
Like you got something to say
What do you think of poet Malcolm London’s message and meaning? What do you read in his poems?