As part of festivities for the slight re-branding of this blog, here’s the latest posting in the form of some rhymes and images. Lyrics by me. Music by Djelimady Tounkara. Pro-vegan, pro-Earth, pro-common-sense, pro-peace, pro-people, Afro-positive bars.
Lyrics:
Chamber music provokes the mystic vegan tap-dance boogie
Unfold your arms, children, boss-up like righteous hooky
I am neither John Cassavates nor a Wookie
That means the only thing I do is resurrect the Chinese Bookie
.
Boogie-woogie, that’s the way of life that I promote
So the rookie wins, with bowling pins to stay afloat
Cargo cults that curry favor for the flavor of the wild oat,
And open up the gates that pen the billy goat
.
Though, it’s a long road, the other shore’s way over yonder
So in the meantime, the mystic tap-dance make’s you ponder:
Is this the best we can do, the human Cadillacs
Hacking each other down, Kalashnikov’s the battle ax?
.
Blacks killing blacks, capillaries full of plaques
Paranoia over mosques, migrants, money and Macs,
Stupefied by Sarah Palin, Mama Grizzlies going whaling
While the planet burns and floods like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
.
It’s a fact: the way we live is making ice shelves crack,
From meat and car culture to the war in Iraq
Which isn’t over, shift change to mercenary soldiers,
Different bullet casings, feral caffeine binges on Folgers
.
But the mystic vegan tap-dance boogie is real
Earthshine on the moon, still a light you can’t conceal
Hot: the soul-searcher bringing out her own potential
Not: the fake pundit telling lies through his credentials
.
A tap-dance thunderclap roars through the plains.
Knocking over all the rafters, bulldozers and cranes
That wanna spread suburban sprawl all the way past Saturn
Real estate Tourrette’s tics, the same worn pattern
.
Using drapes, curtains and shades, dealing aces and spades
But the tap-dance bottle-caps the ignorance raids
On your conscience, the subway ads for beer and pomade
The Times Square sonic light-show free-trade brigade
.
But the boogie boogies forth, as the tropics wander north
No fear, the tap-dancing clan has a plan to take a stand
On rock-solid ledges of a pluralistic thought,
The rise of the ubuntu, bumuntu, bananas bought
.
For the bounty, shared from the Bronx to Kisangani,
No need to kill for water or food like Handsome Johnny,
Cultures of violence and their vultures of silence
Might fade away, and that includes the restive oil fields of Bonny
.
The mystic tap-dance boogie shows that world peace isn’t hard
Beacons of light written in flight by buoyant bards
The inhospitable wardens across the planet
Must have obsidian souls while the boogie’s soul is pomegranate
.
Plummeting the hegemonic phonic of the fold,
To an abyss, all the white noise, the ambience, the hiss
As our own dance taps drown out the sound of cold
With the sound of bold, the human beings that blow a kiss
.
From Kinshasa to Fortaleza to Ogbomosho
Strong-willed strivers winning over all the no shows
To learn the mystic vegan tap-dance boogie in the Sun
Sustainable quilombos keep the corporate forces on the run
.
Clean and easy living, walk the land like Bodhidharma
Leave the car at home, empty the zoo and clear the karma
Bring the brothers home, close the jails and fund the college
The liberationists for revolutions must have knowledge
.
Pro-human pedagogies, no more spikes on planters
Science and traditional knowledge mix, we’re plant enchanters
Vandana Shiva is the general, and people like her,
Waangari Maathi, and plant more trees and be a biker
.
The mystic vegan tap-dance boogie looks like land and freedom
Mau Mau sounds preferring death until the stacks are even
Boogie men and women marchin’ to the sun
Teeth, tongue and tap-shoes – more stopping power than a gun