AfroPoets Famous Writers

The Black Jazz Smile


to lift up my horn & face the music
those black dots with white mathematical tails
to blow my soul through a white man's machine
& then allow white critic to tell me
what I blew
was either
Left (over)
Right (white)
or wrong (black song!)
to bare my self before an uncool scene
thus allowing millions to nourish &
steal from me
without me
receiving compensation, celebration
or fair explanation
Western world's way: EXPLOITATION
So to be a black jazz man & blowing an honest stick
(big masculine bag avoiding the faggot's trick)
is to be putdown
face the frowns
& be starved by white power's clowns
When he     the blackman smiles in jazz
look for the sadness    in his eyes

Written by Ted Joans (1928-2003)

<----> SEND THIS POEM TO A FRIEND! <---->

Ted Joans Poets Page