"Words' Worth" Poetry Readings
Poets at the Culture, Arts, and Parks Committee
of the Seattle City Council.
Wake-Up People...Wake Up! By Bernard Harris, Jr.
Wake up people, hear what I am saying.
The hour is late, there is no time for playing.
Realize and open your eyes,
injustice will induce our, ultimate demise.
Racism...makes life unlivable, makes me
feel like a social criminal, sly real slick and
subtly subliminal done discreetly neatly
completely a camouflaged conspiracy designed to defeat me.
Wake up people, try to understand.
What I'm talking about is the brotherhood of man,
hypocrisy and prejudice is not in God's plan
but her won't help you until you take a stand so
grab a hand of the brother of color,
and then hug his dad, sister and mother. Then maybe
ultimately, we'll all act like the human family
and then we won't act, it will come naturally, perhaps
not tonight, but, eventually.
Wake-up people we need to get busy now,
on our knees praying, instead our own kind we keep on
in trouble. No more jungles, a big hole in the sky,
acid showers and planes that don't fly. (No respect for
nature if there is any wonder why.) All the movers and
shakers policy-makers suffered serious shut-eye.
Wake up people hear what I'm saying, by now we should be
on our knees praying, instead our own kind we keep on
slaying, perpetrating, discriminating, raising generations
to grow up hating, the black man, the yellow, brown, and
red one believing the only good one is a dead one.
Wake-up people, people wake up. I only have time for a few
More minutes and I intend to stretch this thing to
the very limits and if your can't get to that
then you're not even in it
Wake-up people! Wake-up!!
The time is now . . . . .
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