Read Online The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni by Nikki Giovanni - Free Book Online Page A

smile
    joy is finding a pregnant roach
    and squashing it
    not finding someone to hold
    let go get off get back don’t turn
    me on you black dog
    how dare you care
    about me
    you ain’t got no good sense
    cause i ain’t shit you must be lower
    than that to care
    it’s a filthy house
    with yesterday’s watermelon
    and monday’s tears
    cause true ladies don’t
    know how to clean
    it’s intellectual devastation
    of everybody
    to avoid emotional commitment
    â€œyeah honey i would’ve married
    him but he didn’t have no degree”
    it’s knock-kneed mini-skirted
    wig wearing died blond mamma’s scar
    born dead my scorn your whore
    rough heeled broken nailed powdered
    face me
    whose whole life is tied
    up to unhappiness
    cause it’s the only
    for real thing
    i
    know

Ugly Honkies, or
The Election Game and How to Win It
    ever notice how it’s only the ugly
    honkies
    who hate
    like Hitler was an ugly dude
    same with lyndon
    ike nixon hhh wallace maddox
    and all the governors of mississippi
    and you don’t ever see a good-looking
    cop
    perhaps this only relates to the physical
    nature of the beast
    at best interesting for a beast
    and never beautiful
    by that black standard
    if dracula came to town now
    he’d look like daley
    booing senator ribicoff
    no pretty man himself
    but at least out of the beast
    category
    yet all had to describe julian bond
    as the handsome black legislator
    which is, of course, redundant
    life put muskie and huskie humphrey
    on the cover
    and we were struck by a thought:
    â€œif we must be screwed—they could at least be pretty”
    but the uglies kill
    all the pretties
    like john and bobby
    and evers and king
    and if caroline don’t look
    out she’ll be next
    arthur miller spoke of the white things
    jumping wildly on their feet
    banging their paws together
    hating the young
    only this time they were hating
    their young
    a salute to the chicago kids
    now you and the world knows
    we weren’t lying
    a cracked skull in time
    may save mine
    (though i doubt it)
    and hhh says we ought to quit pretending
    what daley did was wrong
    We aren’t pretending
    We didn’t give a damn
    you guys ought to get yourselves
    together
    eating your kids is a sexual
    perversion
    the politics of ’68 remind us grievously
    of the politics of ’64
    the deal to put the bird
    and his faggoty flock in the white nest
    (which began in dallas)
    is being replayed and repaid
    (the downpayment being made in los angeles)
    with tricky dicky to win this time
    (the final payment chicago)
    cause there’s only two parties in this country
    anti-nigger and pro-nigger
    most of the pro-niggers are now dead
    this second reconstruction is being aborted
    as was the first
    the pro-niggers council voting
    the anti-niggers have guns
    if we vote this season we ought to seek to make it
    effective
    the barrel of a gun is the best
    voting machine
    your best protest vote
    is a dead honkie
    much more effective than a yes
    for gregory or cleaver
    this negative bullshit
    they run on us
    is to tie us up in identification
    â€œyou don’t want nixon-agnew do you?”
    â€œwell vote for humphrey-muskie”
    but all you honkies are alien
    to me
    and i reject the choice
    it’s the same game they run
    about nigeria
    â€œwhose side are you on?”
    the black side, fool
    how many times must i show that?
    taking sides is identifying
    and that is commitment
    be committed to us
    and don’t deal with them
    as long as we choose one evil over another
    (on some bullshit theory that it’s lesser)
    we’ll have bullshit evil to deal with
    let’s build a for real black thing
    called revolution
    known to revolutionists as
    love
    the obvious need is a new liberal white party
    to organize liberal and radical honkies
    this will lessen but not remove the clear and present
    danger
    to us
    we need to continue our fight to control
    all of america
    honkies