When the Revolution Comes

 

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

Some of us will probably catch it on TV, with chicken hanging from our mouths

You'll know it's revolution because there won't be no commercials

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

Preacher pimps are gonna split the scene with the communion wine stuck in their back pockets

Faggots won’t be so funny then, and all the junkies will quit their nodding and wake up

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

Transit cops will be crushed by the trains after losing their gunsand blood will run through the streets of Harlem drowning anything without substance

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

I hope pearly white teeth fall out of the mouths that speak of revolution without reverence

The cost of revolution is 360 degrees

Understand the cycle that never ends

Understand the beginning to be the end and nothing is in between but space and time that I make, or you make, to relate, or not to relate, to the world outside my mind, your mind. Speak not of revolution until you are willing to eat rats to survive

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

Guns and rifles will be taking the place of poems and essays

Black cultural centers will be forts supplying the revolutionaries with food and arms

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

White death will froth the walls of museums and churches breaking the lie that enslaved our mothers

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

Jesus Christ is gonna be standing on the corner of Lennox Ave and 125th St trying to catch the first gypsy cab out of Harlem

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

Jew merchants will give away matzoh balls and gifilte fish to anyone they see with an afro

Frank Schiffman will give away the Apollo to the first person he sees wearing a blue dashiki

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

Afros gon' be trying to straighten their heads and straightened heads gone be trying to wear afros

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

But until then you know and I know niggers will party and bullshit

And party and bullshit

And party and bullshit

And party and bullshit

And party...

Some might even die before the revolution comes