If an earthquake comes shocking,
shaking, rattling and rolling Cali
is it Yogi Bear, Hugo Pinell’s parting
words?
It rained forty days and forty nights
the week Bunchy was assassinated…
If an earthquake comes shocking,
shaking, rattling and rolling Cali
whose fault is it? Round up the
usual suspects? The Freeman Bros’.
Alibi’s airtight, same for Wayne
Pharr and Yuri Kochiyama…
If an earthquake comes shocking,
shaking, rattling and rolling Cali
whose fault is it? Round up the
usual suspects? ILWU Local 10,
All Of Us Or None Of Us, Women
In Black, Labor Black and Brown,
Black Liberation Movement, Code
Pink? Caffie Greene’s alibi’s airtight.
If an earthquake comes shocking,
shaking, rattling and rolling Cali
whose fault is it? Round up the
usual suspects? Haiti Action
Committee, Project Censored,
Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Harold
Welton, Kiilu Nyasha, Nora Barrows-
Friedman, Dennis Bernstein? Medea’s
in D.C.—Pam and Ramona swear they
Were in Philly!
If an earthquake comes shocking,
shaking, rattling and rolling Cali
whose fault is it? Round up the
usual suspects? Electronic Intifada,
BDS, Pierre Labossiere, Cat Brooks,
Cephus Johnson, Jack Heyman,
Walter Riley, The Real Clarence
Thomas? Leo Robinson’s alibi’s airtight.
If a quake comes shocking, shaking,
rattling and rolling Cali, fault the feet
that marched to the Port practicing General Strike!
Fault the feet that pounded concrete and asphalt all
night long, night after night, protesting police murder,
From Ferguson, Staten Island, to California!
Fault the feet that that pounded concrete and asphalt
Marching for Melvin Black, Charles Briscoe, Oscar
Grant, Gary King, Casper Banjo, Eula Love, and Jerry
Lee Aime, and Leonard Deadwyler and Ronald Stokes
Before that!
Fault Occupy fighters for laying bare capitalism’s
colliding, crashing contradictions—faults vertically
wrenching into shockwaves, oscillating horizontally…
Strong 6s shake ten times more than Moderate 5s
and have 33x their energy—know 9s brewing below,
Will rumble sub-sonically on tiger paws, whispering
Thunder,
pricking consciences with Fire …