This poem was inspired by an epigraph challenge over at didi's cafecafepoetry.blogspot.com
where you'll find great poets like harry k stammer,keros,annmarie eldon,
luc u,Michelle e o,Lorna Dee and a bunch of other great poets.


Henry’s Elegy For John Shaft (No Relation), Black Marine KIA

“Who is the man that would risk his neck
For the brother man.
Shaft!
Can you dig it?”

He went off to Iraq to fight
for the freedom of his fellow man,
he died trying.

He went off to Iraq to fight,
to keep the country free, what country?
He wasn’t sure.

“Who is the man that would risk his neck
for his brother man. Shaft!
Can you dig it?”

Yeah, dig his grave, brother!(in the hood these words are heard)
He’s a dead motherfucker,
they say this cat Shaft is a dead mother.

Black man, brown man, dying for the rich man.
“Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
when there’s danger all about.”

Don’t know, but he got the shaft.
The sex machine to all the chicks
buried by gullible lyrics.

He went off to fight the war in Iraq,
thought he was coming back,
didn’t know he was a sacrificial lamb.

Yeah, he was a complicated man (ain’t we all?)
and only his woman back home understood,
but he won’t be coming home like he should.