ELLY OF THE b EAST

bY KENNETH bELL, FEbRUARY 1992

I’ll swallow up poppa if he hustles on the side, When the bills get too steep, but he don’t opt for suicide. I’ll isolate mamma away from her child, I’m belly of the beast so come and sit for a while. I’ll digest lil’ sis when she short of cash, or some new drug causes her to sell that ass. I’ll devour little Johnny cause Johnny boy tried to pimp, Got caught in a game with peg leg gangsta’ limp. From the court house to the precinct, to the newest superstition, I’m the man of a thousand faces and the bile of a Kluxist nation. I’m the best of Revelations with the power of resurrection. I’ll give you LIFE without parole or DEATH by lethal injection. Graveyard for the living - of barbed wire, steel and mesh. Of desparate souls and lonely hearts and slowly rotting flesh. Warehouse for the storage of the soldiers of the people, Who rose up in struggle in an attempt to be