Dee may be reached at Pathogen@sanfranmail.com and lives in San Francisco. He enjoys speaking live and has performed at a variety of charity events, including a Food not Bombs benefit last March in the Mission District.
NON-ENEMY
The man who prays to the East
Is not my enemy.
Neither is the person
Who wears a cloth upon
Their head or face out of tradition.
Neither are those who arrive here
From arid desert lands.
The family that attends
Mosques and worship Muhammhad & Allah are
No more a threat to me than
The middle-aged shopkeeper whose
First language is Farsi.
The Palestinians & Afghans do not terrorise
My neighbourhood and the
Lebanese do not make the streets on my block
Unsafe to walk through at night.
The Egyptians do not occupy my home or any
Amerikkkan’s homes with their
Presence, uniforms, weapons & neo-colonialist law.
Critical thinking is under attack at
Higher learning institutions besides mine and
It’s not the Syrians who are kicking out
Instructors one by one.
The Iraqi people
Aren’t deserving of my detestation & rage.
One Fallujah*
Is not enough.
All of the Middle East’s progeny did not
Make war with me or grab the land beneath my feet
Or called the petrol within it theirs.
The Middle Easterners & Muslims did not
Stage outright bombings, shootings and jailhouse
Torture on me in my town.
But that’s what
The United $tates have done to them.
Again & again.
The real Fascism is homegrown.
W: 10.25.07
[In response to “Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week”.]
*A city in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq, where an anti-colonial rebellion took place against the U.$. military’s curfew over the area. On April 31, 2004, after U.$. troops opened fire on Iraqis at a closed-down school 3 days earlier[resulting in 17 dead and 70 wounded], Iraqi rebels fought back by attacking a convoy and dragging & burning 4 Amerikkkan military contractors from Blackwater.
2.
REDLINE [SONG-LYRICS]
Red line
Separates you
Where you stand
From another race of man
Red line
Separates you
From what is vital
To your own survival
High-risk
Environment
Scorned by the rest of the world
Abandonment
Separation
From one another
No line should hold you back [ from what’s needed ]
Just step over
W: 8.31.08
[Inspired by the music of Godflesh.]
1. Born: “in sin”
Bred: a Christian
1st time: was a child, had no choice
2nd time: forced into it
For dating a white grrrl
Behind the family’s backs
3rd time: forced into it
Find a church or else
Slavery—-Escape
Capture—Escape
Capture—Escape
Then discovered the damage
Too much blind faith caused for
Centuries—Knowledge broke the chains
Today, I am a free man
Religion & family pressure
Always work in such patterns
2. Generation X:
The Media created it
Therefore,
IT DOESN’T EXIST—–
W: 11.4.94
DOCTRINE
From the oldest living generation
To the youngest
It is taught.
Passed down.
Like a hereditary disease.
Mind-killing
Heart-infecting pathogen
Which in turn
Infects sentences, whole conversations
So much it dominates voice & emotion.
If you’re not Christian,
You are the enemy.
If you’re not Black,
You are the enemy.
The door stays closed
If you have the wrong colour.
Anyone who doesn’t
Look like you shouldn’t be trusted.
Especially if they
Have blue eyes & fair skin.
The other name for “opponent”
Is White in most of my family.
Yesterday’s victims
Are today’s carriers
Of race hate.
Their doctrine, ethnic self-defence.
Like a hereditary disease
Passed down
It is taught
To the youngest
From the oldest living generation.
W: 6.30.08
OUTLANDER
A stranger in their own land.
Outlander in every town.
A prisoner in their own land.
This is their original home, throughout known history
But they’ve inherited dispossession, a present in misery—-
A stranger in their own land.
Lost all to a million thieving hands, as sure as strong wind wails
Outlanders often take up room—-inside settler’s jails—-
A prisoner in their own land.
False depictions bury true selves, no matter how massive
Forced to play the beaten role—-victimised & hapless—-
A stranger in their own land.
Left in squalour, isolated country hell
Is it any wonder why some would rise & rebel?—-
A prisoner in their own land.
Perennial struggle to maintain
In the face of a heartless colonial domain.
A stranger in their own land.
A prisoner in their own land.
W: 8.17.08
[For Klee, Clay & Janeda Benally.]
[Inspired by the song “NDN Alien” by Blackfire.]
UNDER SUSPICION
Protectors of these fascist streets
Chose me as their scapegoat
Callous judgement out of panic
Three squadcars
circled around me
predators closing in on prey
Frisking down my trench
Frisking down my person
Prying into my totebag
& found
No weapons, no drugs,
No crowbar, no club
&
gave me an unwanted I.D. check,
a consciousness shakedown &
no apologies
whatsoever
Faith in the law obliterated
instantly, at least
since they arrived
Standing at the frontgates
of Sorry Sara’s
past 10am,
I may have been guilty alright.
Guilty of being an
innocent piece of darkmeat
looking forward to an
honest day’s toil.
W: 3.20.94
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