ALL STADIUMS AIN’T FULL: Pam and the Party didn’t buy tickets

By the Underground Poet for Mumia’s 68th birthday

Today we sang the National Anthem
To celebrate the opening of baseball season
And the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson
breaking the color barrier

Man, we felt so included . . .
so red, white, and blue!

Now comes your B-day
beloved brother in Black skin like our own.

You’ve been red-baited by the red, white, and the blue
and red-
lined,
too!

Your name circled in green (and green-lighted)
for nefarious reasons.

They used war-talk and war-moves against you:
charging you first with a crime before committing a crime against you.

They cordoned you off with crime scene tape:
Yellow ribbons reading “police line, do not cross.”

We know that their ultimate goal is to leave you somewhere sprawled
And outlined in white chalk,
But the people are watching.

“Fuck!” they exclaim in frustration
Because they can’t get us all to go to the games.

Man! Between you and Jackie Robinson, I swear
We are truly “Black” and “American.”

Written by an activist in total solitary confinement on Texas death row for the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement’s event for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s birthday.