he was strange weather, this luther, he read books, mainly 

poetry and sometimes long books about people in foreign 

places. for a young man he was too serious, he never did smile, 

and the family still don’t know if he had good teeth. he liked 

music too, even tried to play the trumpet until he heard the 

young miles davis. he then said that he’d try writing. the family 

didn’t believe him because there ain’t never been no writers in 

this family, and everybody knows that whatever you end up 

doing, it’s gotta be in your blood. it’s like loving women, it’s in 

the blood, arteries and brains. this family don’t even write let-

ters, they call everybody. thats why the phone is off 6 months 

out of a year. then again, his brother willie t. use to write long, 

long letters from prison about the books he was reading by

malcolm x, frantz fanon, george jackson, richard wright and oth-

ers. luther, unlike his brother, didn’t smoke or drink and he’d

always be doing odd jobs to get money. even his closest friends 

clyde and t. bone didn’t fully understand him. while they be par-

tying all weekend, luther would be traveling. he would take his 

little money with a bag full of food, mainly fruit, and a change of

underwear and get on the greyhound bus and go. he said he be 

visiting cities. yet, the real funny thing about luther was his 

ideas. he was always talking about afrika and black people. he 

was into that black stuff and he was light skin as a piece 

of golden corn on the cob. he’d be calling himself black and 

afrikan and upsetting everybody, especially white people. they 

be calling him crazy but not to his face. anyway the family, 

mainly the educated side, just left him alone. they would just be 

polite to him, and every child of god knows that when family

members act polite, that means that they don’t want to be

around you. it didn’t matter much because after his mother died

he left the city and went into the army. the last time we heard 

from him was 1963. he got put out of the army for rioting. he 

disappeared somewhere between mississippi and chicago. a 

third cousin, who family was also polite to, appeared one day

and said that luther had grown a beard, changed his name and 

stopped eating meat. she said that he had been to afrika and 

now lived in chicago doing what he wanted to do, writing books, 

she also said that he smiles a lot and kinda got good teeth.

                (it is possible that those persons who feel the need

                to act against evil will be told to wait, be calm, 

                have patience, don’t get upset, be realistic, don’t rock

                the boat, you are not so bad off, &c., &c.)

 

conscious tire of

waiting on waiters who wait for a living

as movers perfect reasons why

others must wait.

 

movers say that waiting is an ancient art form

perfected by negroes waiting on something called freedom

 

that will surely come

if the waiters wait patiently in the kneeling position long

     enough.

long enough is when the waiter’s knees shine and

head automatically drops whenever the waiters are in the 

     presence

of movers that tell them to be grateful

to have something to wait for.

 

movers say that afrikans can’t even clothe themselves,

that the major occupation in central america is the

     maintenance of cemeteries,

that the people of asia need to control their sex drive,

that the only people that really understand modern

      technology are the south afrikaners and their brothers

      on pennsylvania avenue and

that the major problem for others is that they do not

      want to wait for their time.

 

most of the waiters are poor and miseducated.

waiting, like cocaine, is addictive.

people wait on welfare, workfare, healthfare, foodfare

and for businessmen and politicians to be fair.

waiters are line wise having spent a third of their lives

waiting in telephone lines, gas lines, light lines, bus lines,

      train lines and unemployment lines.

 

waitin, waitin,   tush, tush, tush.

 

waiters wait on presidents and first ladies to tell them

the secret of why waiting is better than

communism, socialism and hinduism,

why waiting is more uplifting than full employment 

and is the coming tool to eliminate illiteracy and hunger.

waitin, waitin,   tush.

 

western economists and sociologists have postulated that

waiting is the answer to family separations and ignorance.

that waiting will balance the budget and give waiters

the insight into why others care more about their condition

than they do.

 

the conscious world

waits on people who have become

professional waiters.

the waiters’ education clearly taught them 

to aspire to become either the

waiter, waitee or waited.

for most wasted

waitin, waitin,   tush, tush, tush.

popular consensus has it that

waiting builds character, cures dumbness and blindness,

waiting brings one closer to one’s creator, waiting is intelligent

      work,

waiting is the fat person’s answer to exercise

waiting will be featured on the johnny carson show this week

      disguised as

black urban professionals pushing the latest

form of waiting, “constructive engagement.”

waitin, waitin,   tush, tush, tush.

it is documented that

waiting will save the great whale population,

waiting will feed the children of sudan,

waiting will stop acid rain,

waiting will save the great amazon rain forest,

waiting will guarantee disarmament and peace.

 

the major activity of waiters is watching television, sleeping,

eating junk foods and having frequent bowel movements.

waitin waitin   tush tush tush

 

consciousness decays from

waitin on people with plastic bags

on their heads waitin

waitin on negroes that live for pleasure and money only waitin

waitin on people that confuse freedom with handouts waitin

waitin on sam to straighten his spine and care for his children, 

waiting on six child sue to say no,

waiting on $300 day junkie,

waiting on a people whose heroes are mostly dead,

waitin on boldness from all this education we got,

waiting on the brother,

waiting on the sister.

waiting on waiters who wait for a living

as movers perfect the reasons why

others must wait.

waiting benefits non-waiters and their bankers.

most people are taught that

waiting is the misunderstood form of action, 

is the act that is closest to sex and bar-b-q consumption.

waiting. waiting. waiting. waiting. waiting. waiting.

a truly universal art is practiced

by billions of people worldwide

who have been confirmed by their leaders

to be happy, satisfied and brain dead.