ARRIVAL OF JAMES BALDWIN; MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES Ever since I was eighteen, James Baldwin had been giving me orders. While still alive he came as Skyboss. Since he has died he is just himself. Now he is ordering me to read some of my variations on the Gettysburg Address. Foursore and many tears ago our forefathers brought forth on this incontinent a new train station dedicated to the Civil Wrongs condition that all men are still rated unequal. now we are enraged in a hate tyrants more testing whether one patient or any patient so injured and so devastated can swim to shore. we are hit by the great paradigm of the poor we have come to recreate with caution that field as an angry testing place for those who Malcolm Martin Medgar that that ration might endure. It is altogether unwitting and improper that we do this for in a danger sense we cannot procrastinate, we cannot complicate, the Klu Klux Klan and far subtler genocides have complicated it far beyond our poor power to advance or retreat. The world will little note what we say here but it can never forget what we whisper here (the Gettysburg address can't be found - no forwarding order.) Hasn't it always been this way? turn on the set and the back of the bus vanishes into the fairy tale of Rodney King meets the Spanish Civil War meets Bury My Heart in Cell Block Three and the trouble never happened and the beatings never were. How are we going to make a just state out of a sow's ear, Jimmy.? when you caught the falling star that busted into the left side of the Steeplechase Ferris Wheel you started some kind of illegal archetype immigration. Tell it in church, they'd swoon and sway to oats please beans and civil rights please change scenes, strong rains , still waiting - trees turn green with envy, winter freeze then the races changing places swinging finally into three faces in order to be a philosopher's stone and you know how tender hearted philosopher's stones are when you finally get to touch them, right? so wrong? Who? Right? How? You? Them? doesn't matter. Survival has got to be done. Listening to the beat. Coltrane don't care about keys. white flag now in a habit of living, fling limbed while climbing out of broken hulls, bent torpedoed mast damaged and a sharp list to the left then crawling onto beaches, America the last hurrah blood fingered, geno-cider barrelled, not so much further now than then. (they promised not to use your race any more just for labour and sports.) so Skyboss, probably sharing your highball with God himself checking out Civil Rights, altered states, sweaty fights, dizzy heights, slow defeats. (In the interpretation of dreams , yes frequently means no.) I stepped in the river Jordan, Jimmy better expect me soon. I took the picture of you when you were eighteen, Jimmy. Skyboss, when you going to let up? "take me by the hand and lead me on, Jimmy Pity me Jimmy When you going to finally let up? Jimmy king of heaven maybe now eyes bulging and sweetly cynical smile. God going to wait on you with a tray and two scotch whiskeys "Take me by the hand and lead me on" We were children in an ugly land days of wine and seizures. knocked senseless with life's stun gun. meantime birds swim, fish fly Civil rights? Not much. A scar is born. When happenstance, misfortune and man's fate I all alone beseech the welfare state to grant me shelters, food stamps and hot soup I sometimes think thee me ( oh out of sight.) now Jimmy 's Skyboss to free the slaves and fly the coop. I slave as thee and thine. See well, my forebears they were like you, only their ghetto was Minsk some Cossack cracked the whip, my grandma danced like I dance now to make your goal a truth. We are met on a great cattlecar with no door- we have come to eradicate a portion of that sore as a final testing chase for those who gave their deaths that this nation might repent it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this but in a danger sense we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot follow this sound. Closed door and seven pay days ago our patient gave birth on that continent to a new baby, conceived in secrecy and ordered by genetics to repeat a self fulfilling prophecy. Now we are engaged in a great company store testing whether that confrontation can long manure. Named now, seven faced, spider beyond flea, ill starred, apart, busted heart, find, unmind, unharried, immortal, unchanged, dressed in lace by some holy girder, forgiven, forgiven, "V'yis ga dash, v'yis ga dal" Kaddish come, Kaddish go, Kaddish for James Baldwin, Jimmy you made it. Help us Father, now and at the hour of our last breath we have brought forth into this neverland some dim train station. Birth of the blues and dedicated to the craposition that all adversities are one two three. Folklore unleavened years ago our brothers brought north some discontent a skewed ration constrained in battery and eradicated to the restoration that well then we're elated sequel. Now we are collaged in a great festered sore guessing whether any imitation so construed and so eradicated, can Paul Revere. We make book on the white metalmine of what for. We have come to resuscitate a notion of that mine as a tunneled fasting place for those who here gave that the underground railway saves. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But the electric fence shocks and the cattle prods too. Four score and fevered snows ago our fair weather friends brought forth on this continuum a new execration, conceived in cabalism and detonated to the impersonation that this country under Exxon Corporation shall not perish (House of Mirth.) Scarecrow and homestead fears ago slave traders brought forth on this Tipacanoe and Tyler too a new frito, conceived in jive talk and dedicated to the expiation that all men are created colloquial. Now we are enraged in a great semantic fair testing whether this nation under Bell telephone can again be pure. Rabbi Rectorpastor preached a fine sermon, said a few words in memory of more and future Holocausts ago. Our nation gathered in reconnaissance concealed in liberty and dreaducated to the supplication that all people are regretted equal. Brought forth upon regression subtler genocide retrieved in libertine and graduated to the recreation that all injustices have a sequel. Crunchified that the elation or any elation so felt and so underwritten shall not perish giving birth. The sun set on the great bottle baby of this scar fasting whether that station or any station so aggrieved and do vasolidated can long endure. The world will soon regret what we fry here but it can never forget what we broil here. It is for us the swerving rather to be here correlated at from these Consolidated Ed we take increased persuasion - the sunk in, living and dead who struggled here have correlated it beyond the power of our sore soul to sad or contract. The failed will bottle boat what we played here it can never forgive what they hid here. Before and seven days ago our torn feathers brought forth on this concentrate a small ration conceived in poverty and predicated on the excavation that dogs run free. Now we are engaged in a great resale store testing whether any nation so bereaved and so genocidal can still be pure. CIA and Contra crack score ago our government brought forth into those ghettos a new weapon guaranteed to render helpless the already hopeless. While we here highly resolve that those dead shall not have died in vain that this citation under milkwood shall have a new dream that that covenant of the scruple, with the scruple, and in the scruple shall not perish, has true worth. Miss White is black and I am white James Baldwin said I had back dues Jimmy whose back dues we choose? Let's be here at the Amen Corner Nobody knew your Name. Lost my notes of a Native Son Milktrain's gone too long Remember when I took the picture of you at eighteen? Too many years a million years ago you said goodbye, then you said hello. We hung out awhile If Beale Street Could Talk Lost the month's rent for Giovanni's Room Nobody knew your Name Another Country - The Fire Next time - lost my child on a grey slave ship Jimmy you the same. The Price of the Ticket, No name in the Streets, Just Above my Head, The Amen Corner Too A Rap on Race with Margaret Mean Jimmy what's new? Too many years. Later you had fame Malcolm and Medger and Martin died Now Jimmy you the same. And what is yes is no and will be always until the dust of shelter past drifts broken on the memory of some holiday indoors, with the warm smell of something roasting and clean blankets and a toilet only your own family uses, and a dream of backyards? To multiply on the planet is to divide now too many of us sitting on the ground all we own in backpack and shopping cart, waiting. Land's end outside Cody's bookstore spare changing for quarters for Four thirty dinner at the food project. It is for us the giving rather to be fornicated her to the unwilted smirk which they who traded in slaves here have dust bowl so soberly romanced. It is rather for pus to be her tabulated to the great gasp remaining before us that from these underfed we take policed conversion to those chores with which that gave the last full measure of Depression. The take ten giving and bled who struggled here have concentrated it above our poor power to pad or retract. The failed will river boat nor chicken gumbo what we say here but it can never forget what they did here. Fever sore and underweight days ago our fall flowers brought forth upon this concubine a new notion suffused with cavities and suffocated in the proper position that all moral majority theorems are apriori true. Now we are engaged in a great Castle Keep testing whether that imitation or any imitation so deceived and so segregated can long underwear. We are met on the harvest cottonfield of the poor. Foreclose and smothered days ago our hindmothers brought forth on this canto rent with torn factions, an equal, revived in property and postulated on the decibel that all men are created level. Now we are unmade in a great Scarborough Fair fasting whether that faction or any faction so believed and so debilitated can long encore.