"Prove It Why Don't You" written and read by Wanda Coleman
Channel: g.i.g. worldwide entertainment
Date: 2019-10-18

PROVE IT WHY DON'T YOU
by Wanda Coleman

*fox in the hen house shoo fox shoo*

who say who suffer most? colored folk say
there's little cultural guilt & less national empathy 
(one is always used to one's own stink)
about so-called misery, present the irrefutable
evidence, take it skip-to-my-loo. all have crosses to bear 
except some have great big wooden ones with splinters
and termites and some got little 24K gold diamond studded 
crosses and some are born nailed to theirs and others 
got to make 'em themselves and still others
buy theirs at the finest roodmakers. show the wound 
let's touch to see if it hollers
squeeze it and let the pus owl-eye to the surface

now, darlin', who co-opted your form and 
coyoted your content?

but seriously—birds do sing 
and telephones ring-a-ling

as for slavery
don't come crying about what's been stolen 
from you. Besides

acts of oppression are sexy and
good hard thangs grow in tight wet places

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Published in "African Sleeping Sickness". Black Sparrow Press. 1990

Recording from "Berserk on Hollywood Blvd." 
New Alliance Records CD59. 1991.