Anvil Tongue: Three Poems, Biko Eisen-Martin

cuffed to myself in amerikkka

In a 9 by 5

With 9 men

Who do not like being touched

A killers snarl has turned sad frown

An addicts high has turned on him

The brothers in red feel more Jamaican than Blood

For that I am happy

Craving cigarettes more than freedom

Craving solitude more than family

I smile when we finally become silent

I count 3 times I have been cuffed to a stranger

In new orleans

The police made a 3D NEGRO power point

Plucking us off the sidewalk and pinning us to brick

A human grid selling their power

And trying to not scratch our faces on the wall

As we breathed into brick

You know City shit

Fuck my wrists

Sorry bruh

Maybe if I hold up my arm like this

Yeah thats good, thank you

The man cuffed to my other arm refused to return my gaze

Ashamed of our shame

Stacked , divided and pulled apart

Like a paper cut out of a man

Maybe we are the same man

Maybe it was just me divided

Grabbing our limbs out of the crowd like were the same person

Katrina waters lowering slow

And somehow sliming up our backs

An hour against the wall

And not one of us asked why

New York City

That cloud of smoke aint mine

You lying

Where you hide it

I deny it

Still lined up again

Flayed against the precinct wall

This time I’m cuffed

To my brother

And he got a pig

To call every pig

That passes us prisoners

Yeah you pig

And we

Like kids holding hands before lunch

This station looks like an elementary

Same calendar on the wall

Height marks to my left

How many young men have grown tall in this building

My brothers vehemence is leaving his body

The clock is starting to tic like a weight

I keep my arm straight so he can wipe his tears

I got two cigarettes

Two hours to live

Here

You keep that for later

Share a whole smoke with the condemned

Remember when we were cuffed together

I didn’t know your name

Just that the concrete wouldn’t do your back justice

Knew that crime is subjective in america

But cops and robbers is black and white

So is brotherhood in these nights

Where being alone can cost you your life

Cost you your light

Hey lil brother

I know you sick but if you don’t wake up you gonna choke on your own vomit

You wanna live I promise

Get this man some water

Get this man some help before he dies in our cell

Have they even counted how many of us are in this cell

Hey youngin, this must be your first time in hell

8 years old in frisco

was my first time cuffed to a stranger

I was cuffed to myself

I wasn’t the child they were putting cuffs on

Though I could feel him by my side

It was the other me

My American reflection

But my invisible little wrists couldn’t break free

I was cuffed to me

My body not far from school

Not far from love

So I know I was

I was there

The metal digging

Into my little wrists

My head throbbing

I wanted to cry

Watching my body split

Watching time split

Every minute had a second

Watching the lines blur

Like as if water had beseted the story of my life

And the ink was doubling on the page

Each letter becoming two

One strong and one blurred out the line

I stepped out of the cuffs a blurry vision of myself

Expendable , detachable , a new definition of time

Still trying to find the me that didn’t make it out of those cuffs

But that page is gone

Just ghosts now

Wondering cells

Stacked against history

Still holding my hand

Yes I feel you close

Trying to unspilt me

A million of us

Leaving our shadows to take to the streets

Is this the capitol

Or is this the ghost of a city?

Is this a country

Or is this a land handcuffed to a white supremacy

A blackness conceived by white

And Cuffed to it trying to matter

I think we confuse this country for a ghost we never knew

A handcuffed child who will never be free here

The Death of Jamal Sutherland

Commercial break

Skip add in 5 4 3 2 Skip Add

We cant open the door

He’s refusing to cuff up

Taking an aggressive stance

He’s already said we have to use force on him

Hallelujah

Co captain gray

Judge stating he has to be in front of the judge

Medical on stand by

Hallelujah

Does he still have the spoon in his hand

He still has the spoon in his hand

Hallelujah

You see what’s taking place here

Drop the spoon and come to the door

I’m God’s child

Drop the spoon and come to the door

I’m God’s child

Calm yourself down

(Chemical spray) sssssssssssssssssssss

Do what you gone do

Sssssssssssss Damn you got another one of those

Come to the door so I can get you out of there

Drop the spoon and come to the door

Damn I got it in the eye

Come to the door

Com e to the door

Hey come here

Coughing

Hey turn around

Turn around

Knocking

Turn around

He’s trying to wrap a blanket around his head

Cough

Soon as you come out it’ll get better

Coughing and giggling

What do you want from me

Come to the door

For what

Take that off your head and come to the door

What do you want from ME

What do yall want

Come on cuff up

Drop to your knees

Drop down to your knees

Take that off your head and drop to your knees

Take the blanket off your head

Blessing to me

Blessing from god

Hallelujah

Beeping

Coughing

Drop the blanket come to the door

Coughing

Get down Sutherland

Get down on the grown

Get down sutherland

Get down

(Walkie talkie) smu , smu

(Shot of something fired)

Moans and groans of pain

Get on your stomach

Turn on your stomach

Your gonna get another one

Come to the door

Stay on your stomach

come to the door

Stay on your stomach

Come to the door

I can’t stand up

Keep coming

Keep moving

Stay down and slide

What’s the meaning of this

Turn on your stomach

For what?

Thats as far as I’m turning

Keep turning

Thats as far as I’m turning

Do not resist

I’m not resisting officer

Turn around

Officer

(Taser)Zzzzzzzzzz

AAHHHHHHHHHuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Hey

Aaaaaahahhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuhhuuuuuuuu

Zzzzzzzzzzz

Stop

Stay down

Shouts

Aaaahahhahahahahahahhahah

Put your hands behind your back

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Aaaahahahahahahahahahahh

Ahahaha

Hands behind your back

Haa

Put your hands behind your back

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Didn’t resist

I didn’t resist

Get that hand

Get the cuffs on him

Coughs

(Walkie talkie) go head, can u give me a talk (Beep)

Give the other hand

Give me the other hand sutherland

Give the other hand

I’m not resisting

Give me your hand

I’m not resisting (with tears )

Give me your hand

I cant breathe

I’m bleeding

Give your hand

You need another pair ,

You got it , yeah , lock it , your good, were good

Slide him out

I can’t breathe

Aha

Lets just slide him out

Stop resisting!

Stop

Ahhha

Shit , thank you , cough ,

Take em up to the chair

Get on that side and sit him up

Hey will you check him

Will you check him

Is alright

He’s not breathing

Hold on

He’s not breathing

For Ma’Kiah

There are some of us who are remembers

The police celebrated Chauvin’s guilty verdict with a gunshot

Left a 15 year old girl dead in the street

Memorializing the act of killing

Pumping blood into the veins of a giant

That stomps from sea to shining sea

The sun never sets on their trigger fingers

The night gives no rest to our children

I don’t need to watch the news

The gunpowder in the air tells the story

The city is named after one of the most gory villains

To give glory to white supremacy

Columbus Ohio they call it

Full circle

Their bullets travel in time

Whiz around the planet

Children falling before they can call their mothers

My little sisters and brothers

It took 400 years from Columbus’s arrival

For the Haitian revolution

To knock imperialist off the land Columbus stood

It better not take 400 years

For us to revolt again

To get these killer police

Of stolen land

Where they murder children and go home to their children

So they can grow old and kill our children again

My little brothers and sisters

I remember the first time I was accosted by the police

I don’t remember the second, tenth or 100th

Can’t tell you how many times I had to force my pride into my stomach

Face dirty on the concrete

Praying I’d make it through another search

Don’t get used to that hurt

Swallowing your words is like swallowing your teeth

Sharpen your mind

Until your bite is strong enough to take back these streets

Its going to take every one of you

To turn history inside out

To alter the trajectory of Columbus’ legacy

To alter the trajectory of San Francisco

No trial will bring back the Ohlone

No poem will bring back MaKiah Bryant

The black Jacobins defeated the French with self love and machetes

Why they feared her with a knife

I see Erzuli Dante dancing in the sky

Teaching spirits how to yield a sword

Before forming in their mothers wombs

All wounds return as warriors

Saints, No longer confused

that christendom will never be christlike

Angels need the living to protect them

To speak their names day and night

Another black future destroyed to keep Columbus white

To celebrate Columbus

And every life

White supremacy will claim to remain on the throne

Leaving piles of bones on our corners

For mothers to sort through

Because not every victim gets a news cycle

Just a noose rifle while their killers parade

Meet me under the plantation

We are sharpening blades

The one Ma’kiah Bryant was holding is around my neck

The one Mario Woods was was holding

I’ll use to carve our names in the cliffs of ocean beach

They will remember the last 3%

Before they try to sweep us under history

Don’t ask me why I am wearing a pigs head on my head like the online wore deer

If you know you know

Either we grow or become bones

1492 has turned into a millennium

But revolutionaries are perennial

And its time for black eyed pees

Its time for another Haitian revolution

With the whole diaspora up to speed

Put some revolutionary news in the air to reads

Until the sun sets on the giant

And our babies can sleep

Born and raised in San Francisco, Biko was immersed in art and radicalism by a single mother who empowered him to use his voice, his body and art to not only overcome struggle, but to uplift others. As a youth Biko performed poetry nationally with Youth Speaks including the Youth Against War conference in Bosnia. At Brown University Biko earned a BA in Africana studies and a Masters in Teaching. After teaching history at Berkeley High and performing locally in the Bay Area, Biko went back to school and earned an MFA at the National Theatre conservatory. Biko has performed Off-Broadway and at the top regional theaters*. Film/TV credits include AMC's "Dietland", Amazon's “Modern Love”, Starz’s “Ghost” and several shorts, including "Buck", which premiered at Sundance 2020.

Anvil Tongue

Friday, October 1, 2021

Three Poems, Biko Eisen-Martin

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