Reclaim the Streets

“To stay free is not theoretical. It is to take over your immediate environment” – Miguel Algarin

they left on the A train headed down town
hoping to make the connection to the gravy train
which didn’t stop in the ghetto
black and brown bodies crammed in a sardine can
headed towards heaven or at least out of harlem
in secondhand me down suits bought with law suits  
taken out on landlords
who never removed the lead paint in their SROs fit for a family of five
including little jesus who wasn’t so little anymore  
but never really grew up or out
as out they went jumping turnstyles in style  
over the ghetto and past the hoods
holding the door to get in a few more and in they went on their way out
cursing the conductor as the train traveled thru the local line
that wasn’t fast enough to outpace hell  
or the starving hounds that roamed thru the barrio streets like fossils
found just feet away from a crumb  
chewed into submission by soldier ants
with attitudes who battled rats in kevlar  
made from campbells soup cans
to protect themselves from the upscale army  
who traveled in cars crafted from corporate coffins  
that were begged or  borrowed from the mortuary mall  
with plastic slave master ID cards  
that identified their debt to society
that they never planned to pay
along with the tickets they received  
for driving outside of the handicapped parking battle zones  
that surrounded the slum like concertina cops
keeping in the inmates doing life bids  
while they waited to be pardoned for living
while inside jesus organized a cell in his cell  
pacing in combat boots that still had their soles
because he’d never sold his and now he ran an insurrection from within
with those who hadn’t yet left and had no where else to go  
and were left behind unshackled and unhinged
to burn and loot and dance and sing  
on deserted streets that were now reclaimed

(not4)Prophet