| DEAR MUMIA: A Letter from Cali
Dear Mumia: I heard you went off in the jail
and I moved from Philly to California.
Dear Mumia: Guess what? I heard your voice
all the way out here!
Yo Mumia! I hadn’t heard your voice
since 1979 when I left Philly’s
Mao Tse-rizzo, police welfare
Move burning state for D.C.’s
employed set-up Marion Barry
plantation segragation state.
I hadn’t been in your presence
since I was G.H.
on the mic with project B.A.I.T.
(Black Awareness in Television
and Radio) on WUHY or was it HYY?
It was a real black thing.
All the sister’s thought you was fine
and we still do.
Hey Mumia! I heard they locked you down
and you was defiant, not suave--
“This is Mumia Abu-Jamal reporting for
WDAS News.”
I heard about your book, Live from Death Row,
in Caffeine magazine, in a coffee house,
in San Diego, California.
Mumia, I knew you was holding on
and then I read about your book
in a coffee house in Cali
and Dan Rather said you was a cause celeb.
But, I want to tell them
they weren’t around 13th and Spruce Streets?
blocked off in the night
when they turned the spotlight on
and found you.
It was a Philly cop killer thing.
They couldn’t understand.
Now your voice and your words reach me
in Cali.
Good. Cause I heard you went off
but the magazine said they’re going
to take you on August 17th, 1996.
Like long-haired Reno Rains on tv framed.
Only you had an Afro then.
Yes Mumia!
1994 in Cali I first heard of your cause
ridin with Mary in her Camero
jammin to Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam--
“I’m Gonna Make It.”
We rode past the World Beat Center
where the white rastas
held a benefit for you.
I said, “Damn, Mumia’s cause
all the way out here in Cali.”
When we was in Philly town
no white boys had dreads
and I thought you was alone.
So now let's talk about it
man’s inhumanity to man,
barbarism,
black male genocide,
unfulfilled dreams,
political prisoners near and far,
and getting old.
I faced my maker three times in ‘94.
Now you’re facing the executioner.
Will I read about it in Jet magazine
if it goes down? Mumia.
The white Rastas
would probably have a memorial service--
information like that book review
I read on page 57 of issue 12
Caffeine free paper out of L.A.
like I did from Philly
like you will be free
Keep in touch, colleague.
Love minerva |
