Poetry Inspiration: The Tradition By Assata Shakur

THE TRA­DI­TION

Carry it on now.
Carry it on.
Carry it on now.
Carry it on.
Carry on the tradition.

Their were Black People since the child­hood of time
who car­ried it on.
In Ghana and Mali and Timbuktu
We car­ried it on.
Car­ried on the tradition.

We hid in the bush.
When the slave mas­ters came
hold­ing spear
And when the moment was ripe,
leaped out and lanced the lifeblood
of our would-be masters.
We car­ried it on.

On slave ships,
hurl­ing ourselves into oceans.
Slit­ting the throats of our captors.
We took their whips.
And their ships
Blood flowed in the Atlantic
and it was­n’t all ours.
We car­ried it on.

Fed Missy arsen­ic apple pies.
Stole the axes from the shed.
Went and chopped off mas­ter­’s head.
We ran. We fought.
We organ­ized a railroad.
An underground.
We car­ried it on.

In news­pa­pers. In meetings.
In argu­ments and street fights.
We car­ried it on.

In tales told to children.
In chants and cantatas.
In poems and blues songs
and sax­o­phone screams,
We car­ried it on.

In classrooms. In churches.
In courtrooms. In prisons.
We car­ried it on.

On soap­boxes and pick­et lines.
Wel­fare lines, unemployment
Our lives on the line,
We car­ried it on.

In sit-ins and pray ins
And march ins and die ins,
We car­ried it on.

On cold Mis­souri midnights
Pit­ting shot­guns against lynch mobs
On burn­ing Brook­lyn streets
Pit­ting rocks against rifles,
We car­ried it on.

Against water hoses and bulldogs.
Against night­sticks and bullets.
Against tanks and tear gas.
Needles and nooses.
Bombs and birth control.
We car­ried it on.

In Selma and San Juan.
Mozam­bi­que, Mississippi.
In Brazil and in Boston,
We car­ried it on.

Through the lies and the sell-outs,
The mis­takes and the madness.
Through pain and hun­ger and frustration,
We car­ried it on.

Car­ried on the tradition.
Car­ried a strong tradition.
Car­ried a proud tradition.
Car­ried a Black tradition.
Carry it on.

Pass it down to the children.
Pass it down.
Carry it on.
Carry it on now.
Carry it on
TO FREEDOM!

Read more about Assata Shak­ur

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Gata Malandra

Edit­or / Research­er at No Bounds

Gata is a music and arts lov­er, stud­ied anthro­po­logy, art man­age­ment and media pro­duc­tion ded­ic­at­ing most of her time to cre­at­ive pro­jects pro­duced by No Bounds.

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