On the Loss of Energy (and Other Things) Poem by June Jordan

no more the chicken and the egg come

one of them
before the other
both
be fadin (steady)
from the supersafeway/a&p/giant
circus

uh-huh
the pilgrim cornucopia
it ain' a pot to pee in
much
(these days)

gas is gone
and alka seltza runnin gas
a close race
outasight/you
name it
toilet paper
halfway honest politicians
there's a shortage
folks/please
step right up)
a crisis
(come in closer)
A International Disaster
Definitely Takin Place
(give the little lady down in front some room)
and (how about the brother in the back row/can
you hear me brother?)
WELL
I SAID THE HOT AIR'S RUNNIN
OUTASTEAM
I SAID
THE MEAT'S NOT GOOD
FOR KIDS TO EAT
TOO FULLAFAT
AND STUFF LIKE THAT
AND
IF YOU EAT MEAT
HOW YOU PLAN TO PAY THE RENT?
I SAID
THE OILWELLS DRIBBLIN
LOWER THAN A SNAKE
AND SOON WON'T BE NO HEAT
AND SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL EAT MEAT
EXCEPT THERE AINT NO
MEAT TO EAT
I SAID

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

these things/they gettin more and more worse in
the time it takes to tell
you
how the country's bound to hell
you
first
if you be middlin poor or poor or Black or Black-and-poor
this profit-makin mess the worst
mess we been force to handle
since the civil war
close down the crackers
reconstructed
how the north won
into victory the crackers like to celebrate/a
reconstruction of the facts
on poor and Blackbacks
but
I am digressin/folks
please settle down and listen good
I say you know
you know
the affluent society
starvin high
on the hog as pigs can get
I say you know
we all been pigs
but mostly we been little pigs/I say
the big pigs
got the whole big pigpen
underneath some tasty big-pig pigs' feet
dynamite can move
where is the dynamite?
How come we tryin to cooperate
with this "emergency"/this faker/phony
ripoff
got you plannin
not to die and not to have a baby
on the weekends
not to do too much/
much less to start to die or start to have
a baby
on a Sunday
or on early Monday
got you/stiff and slow and hungry
on them lines the richboys laugh about/
Will somebody
real and prominent and smart
please stand
up here
and tell about inequities and big and little pigs
and other animals and birds/and fish
don't know a thing about no hog behavior/where's
the dynamite?
I say you know/I say
you know.
And so do I.