thanks-taking/Mni Wiconi v the black snake
to the Water Protectors,
in the Wombs of Olokun,
the
genocidal cries
rise against the chains on their remains
Tatanka-Iyotanka rides
his buffalo rumble in the distance
waiting for their day of vengeance
60 million
blood
they killed 60 million buffalo
blood
just 40 million less than MAAFA
black blood
in the bottom of the sea
so
mni wiconi
speak Water Protectors
speak
against the snake’s water canon
La Madre
cradles the suffering
but for those who cause suffering
she holds death in her hands
the
slow-flow-through-umbilical kind
need I remind
if all are one
then we pump out our own ancestors
to burn under the sun
to get our lattes
a little faster
Water Protect-us
from our self-
guzzling ways
Mni Wiconi
never be thirsty
to the Fire Protectors
stomach churns of Pele
don’t die of hypothermia
burned into the pavement
of your mounds
in shopping malls
ceremonious
eyes of blue flame
when you call out the name
of the lost tribes
and they came
shrouded in animal skins
signing like Koko
let the truth in
puke the lies out
study their features
in the bucket before you
then scroll their deeds
so our prophecies can be freed
to the Nature Protectors
my Kali says
the holy dark is moving too
and we were not ready
may the athame/cuchilla be quick
brujas
an opening
Nana Buruku
to our true egg
a rebirth with streams in hand
mountain in mind
trees in hair
hurricanes in eyes
this ending will be a beginning
morsels of our oppression
ground to breath
most fouled in smog factories
most cancered epigenetically
filtered lead-filled springs
will burn from the faucet
all that destroys us
is transmutated in our intentions
and you are again
the naked
the sacred
communing decolonized
with Divine
to the Mineral Protectors
Medusa’s might through blight and retribution
barbarians wanting trophies of the impossible
woman power
the stone people always win
only we know at who's expense
Griots tell tales
cellular memory
post traumatic empire syndrome
severed roots
smothered branches
gmo’d histories
to organic mysteries
to rites of passage destinies
to Red Tent cities
matriarchal blood warriors
Boudica
5 gendered god-talkers
Trans-cender
15 year old prophets
Milala
Iyami
primordial grandmother ruler
decomposting
to re-member again
And to the Earth Protectors
Shekhinah fill your lungs
to walk the Guadalupana
from East Oakland
to the deserts of stolen Mexico
to embrace
two little girls
in a minute men dungeon
to silence their claims
on 7 generations of treaties
renewed
in blood bonds
the washed sack of Yemoja
the cradle her arms
where any warrior
would be proud to die and rise
rise and die
and sit
beneath Quan Yin
to learn of love
until the world ends
- Dark Prophet