For Tyehimba Jess

(leadbelly led led)

it's an old song
i've heard before

lead belly say
gallows pole

old Irish cut
i think it's Led

Zeppelin singing
blues it hurts

i think it's a circle
scream riff sample

i think it's America's
open heart cut up:

one time for your mind:

my uncles
field? the question
from the land
ancestors
(later tonight
with whiskey
they will raise Cain/cane)
with lead in their belly
make we wanna hola
(they sure nuff will)

two times for the body:

oh screaming guitar who
is not human? who oh
calloused hands pain
oh work that is worked

nobody owns the scream

nobody knows, no body knows

this room's religion
this bar, these shots
this whiskey I drink
in Wuhan Prison