For those of you who may have missed my poetic tribute to my mentor, the late Councilman John Sweet at his memorial service. Find my live performance, here.
John Sweet Like Sugar
My name is John SWEET, like sugar
Not like an Embassy
Not like music movements
In the same key of life
Sweet sugar
White sugar
Cane sugar
Brown sugar, yeah
My name is John Sweet like sugar
I am a poem
Mystic marxist
Roots musician
strumming Bluegrass on a guitar
dancing to the polyrhythms of life
Singing loudly in a choir
Belching out in key of life
“Those who believe in freedom, cannot stop” Cause freedom
Cannot stop
Freedom
Cannot stop
My name is John Sweet like sugar
I built my home from the foundation up
But it has no walls
And it travels with me wherever I roam
When I thump for the environment
I open a window and say
Climb in
When I’m busting big pharma
I open another window
And grab the hand of a sick woman
and pull her in
The poor black man on the ground who got tossed after 35 years
We carry him into a window with no bars
knowing reparations must be exacted for this human indignity And Midge says -”this is all good”
And Eli says- “now is this is the shit you be talking” And cassie says “now I know the true meaning of hard labor” ‘Cause We live in a house without walls, windows or doors A place we gather by four or more
For the sake of justice, righteousness and that good ole Freedom that cannot stop
Should not stop
Will not stop!
My name is John Sweet like sugar
I’m a preacher, prophet, preparer of participants Sharer, carryer of empathy
I wake up in the middle of the night
with a warm sweat
contemplating how best to harness
the power of people
shed white privilege
I’m entrapping unwitting bodies with lit up eyes
Bodies, that sometimes win crap-shoot elections
or cry when they bow bitterly in defeat
Victory and defeat or two sides of the same coin
The question is — what will we do when life comes knocking at our doors? Will we hoist our homes on our backs and walk the way of a new world? Open windows?
or lock ourselves in?
Save no one
Say no souls are revealed through our eyes
No words ever seek higher meanings
Say, we are safe now
For we have taken
no fucking chances at all!
My name is John Sweet like sugar
Not like an Embassy
or music movements
In the same key of life
Sweet sugar
White sugar
Cane sugar
Brown sugar, yeah!
Jabari Simama May 4, 2021
Jabari Simama Speaks 