Benjamin Zephaniah

I Have a Scheme
 
 
I am here today my friends to tell you there is hope
As high as that mountain may seem
I must tell you
I have a dream
And my friends
There is a tunnel at the end of the light.
And beyond that tunnel I see a future
I see a time
When angry white men
Will sit down with angry black women
And talk about the weather,
Black employers will display notice-boards proclaiming,
‘Me nu care wea yu come from yu know
So long as yu can do a good day’s work, dat cool wid me.’
 
I see a time
When words like affirmative action
Will have sexual connotations
And black people all over this blessed country of ours
Will play golf,
Yes my friends that time is coming
And in that time
Afro-Caribbean and Asian youth
Will spend big money on English takeaways
And all police officers will be armed
With a dumplin,
I see a time
A time when the President of the United States of America
            will stand up and say,
‘I inhaled
And it did kinda nice
So rewind and cum again.’
Immigation officers will just check that you are all right
And all black people will speak Welsh.
 
I may not get there my friends
But I have seen that time
I see thousands of muscular black men on Hampstead Heath
            walking their poodles
And hundreds of black female Formula 1 drivers
Racing around Birmingham in pursuit of a truly British way of life.
I have a dream
That one day from all the churches of this land we will hear
            the sound of that great old English spiritual,
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.
One day all great songs will be made that way.
 
I am here today my friends to tell you
That the time is coming
When all people, regardless of colour or class, will have
            at least one Barry Manilow record
And vending-machines throughout the continent of Europe
Will flow with sour sap and sugarcane juice,
For it is written in the great book of multiculturalism
That the curry will blend with the shepherd’s pie
            and the Afro hairstyle will return.
 
Let me hear you say
Multiculture
Amen
Let me hear you say
Roti, Roti
A women.
 
The time is coming
I may not get there with you
But I have seen that time,
And as an Equal Opportunities poet
It pleases me
To give you this opportunity
To share my vision of hope
And I just hope you can cope
With a future as black as this.
 

*

 
Money
(rant)
 
 
Money mek a Rich man feel like a Big man
It mek a Poor man feel like a Hooligan
A One Parent family feels like some ruffians
An dose who hav it don’t seem to care a damn,
Money meks yu friend become yu enemy
Yu start see tings very superficially
Yu life is lived very artificially
Unlike dose who live in Poverty.
Money inflates yu ego
But money brings yu down
Money causes problems anywea money is found,
Food is what we need, food is necessary,
Mek me grow my food
An dem can eat dem money.
 
Money meks a singer singaloada crap
Money keeps horses running round de track
Money meks Marriages
Money meks Divorce
Money meks a Student tink about de course,
Money meks commercials
Commercials mek money
If yu don’t hav money yu just watch more TV,
Money can save us
Still we feel doomed,
Plenty money burns in a Nuclear Mushroom.
Money can’t mek yu happy
Money can’t help yu when yu die,
It seems dat dose who hav it continually live a lie.
Children a dying
Spies a spying
Refugees a fleeing
Politicians a lying,
So deals are done
An webs are spun
Loans keep de Third World on de run,
An de Bredda feels betta dan dis Bredda next door
’Cause dis Bredda’s got money, but de Bredda’s got more
An de Bredda tinks dis Bredda’s not a Bredda ’cause he’s poor
So dis Bredda kills de odder
Dat is Economic War.
 
New world Economic War
A bigga economic war means
It may not be de East an de West anymore
Now its de North an de South
Third World fall out
Coffee an Oil is what its about
It’s Economic War
Poor people hav de scar
Shots fired from de Stock Market floor,
So we work fe a living, how we try
An we try,
Wid so little time fe chilling
Like we living a lie.
 
Money meks a dream become reality
Money meks real life like a fantasy
Money has a habit of going to de head
I have some fe a rainy day underneath me bed,
Money problems mek it hard fe relax
Money meks it difficult fe get down to de facts
Money meks yu worship vanity an lies
Money is a drug wid legal eyes
Economists cum
Economists go
Yu try controlling yu cash flow
Food cost loads
House prices soar
An de Rich people try to dress like de Poor,
Nobody really understands de interest rate
When dere is interest den its all too late,
We cherish education
But how much do we pay?
Yu can’t buy Race Relations or afford a holiday
Money can’t mek yu happy, yu happiness is paper thin
When yu are lonely yu will invite yu poor friends in.
 
Now dem sey is money culture time
Is dis culture yours, ’cause it is not mine
Money culture who?
Money culture what?
Money culture thrives where luv is not,
Dem can buy an sell till dem gu to Hell
Dem can tax de wisher at de wishing well,
Now Frankenstein cum fe privatise
Empire fools, get penny wise.
Every government will tek what dem can get
Every government is quick to feget
Every government can mek money by killing
Every government luvs money, no kidding,
But money is paper an paper will burn
So tink about trees as yu earn,
It could do good but it does more bad
Money is fake       and 
You’ve been had.
 
Some study how fe manage it
Some study how fe spend it
Some people jus cannot comprehend it
Some study how fe move it from one country to another
Some study how fe study it an dem study fe ever,
Some people never see it yet dem work hard
Other never see it because dem carry cards,
Some people will grab it without nu thanks
An den mek it pile up in High Street banks.
Parents are hoping,
Some are not coping,
Some are jus managing,
Books need balancing,
Property is theft,
Nu money means death,
Yu pay fe yu rent den nothing left,
Some will pick a pocket
Some are paid fe stop it
Dose who are paid fe stop it are happy
’Cause dey got it,
Some gu out an fight fe it
Some claim dem hav de right to it
People like me Granparents live long but never sight it.
 
Money made me gu out an rob
Den it made me gu looking fe a job,
Money made de Nurse an de Doctor immigrate
Money buys friends yu luv to hate,
Money made Slavery seem alright
Money brought de Bible an de Bible shone de light,
Victory to de penniless at grass roots sources
Who hav fe deal wid Market Forces,
Dat paper giant called Market Forces.

from THE DREAD AFFAIR (1985)
13 Dedication
14 Dem people stone poets
15 Nature’s politics
15 Fight dem
17 Nice one Handsworth
18 Anti-society
19 Ess double you nine (Brixton)
19 Can’t keep good dread down
20 The boat is sinking
22 Freedom side
23 Who killed Colin Roach
24 Ganja rock
25 The day dat I met Lady Di
26 Pen rhythm
27 Dreadie high-rise farm
29 Dis policeman keeps on kicking me to death
31 South Afrika
 
CITY PSALMS (1992)
35 Man to Man
36 Dis Poetry
38 A Bomb
39 A bomb pusher writes 
40 Overstanding
41 Speak
42 A writer rants
42 Money (rant)
46 No rights red an half dead
47 According to my mood
47 The Cold War
49 As a African
50 My God! You God!
50 A Picture of a Sign
52 Yo Bowy
53 Tiananmen Square
54 Royals do it too
56 Black Whole
57 Rapid Rapping (rant)
60 Call it what yu like
63 Us & Dem
65 Cut de crap
66 Me green poem
70 Comrades an Frens 
71 A modern slave song
72 U-Turn 
73 How’s dat
74 She’s crying for many
76 Question
77 The sun
78 Ringside
80 Black Politics of Today
82 The Old Truth
 
PROPA PROPAGANDA (1996)
84 I Have a Scheme
86 The Death of Joy Gardner
88 Terrible World
89 White Comedy
90 Belly of de Beast
92 De Rong Song
93 Save Our Sons (SOS)
94 Reggae Head
96 Dry
97 Meditate and Communicate
98 More Animal Writes
100 Who Dun It?
102 The Angry Black Poet
104 Poor Millionaires
105 Silence in Our Screams
107 Back to What
108 To Be Seen, To Be Done
109 One Day in Babylon
110 City Lights
111 No Problem
112 Dancing the Tradition
114 Neighbours
115 Another World
116 Family Values
117 The War Process
118 Want To Be a Soldier
120 Sit Con
121 City River Blues
122 Tricky
122 Altered Ego
123 Homeward Bound
125 Parents Today
126 The Curse of Count Empire
128 Art
128 Words
128 Hope
129 Mad Human Disease
130 Master, Master
131 Cybersex
133 Ageism
134 Acts of Parliament: motion 1
135 Acts of Parliament: motion 2
136 Acts of Parliament: motion 3
137 The President Is Dead Again
141 Independence
142 De Queen an I
144 Walking Black Home
145 Self Defence
146 Tax Relief
147 Heckling Miss Lou
148 Childless
 
TOO BLACK, TOO STRONG (2001)
151 What Am I Going On About?
156 Bought And Sold
157 What If
158 Breakfast in East Timor
160 What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us
162 To Ricky Reel
164 To Michael Menson
165 Having a Word
166 Reminders
167 Appeal Dismissed
168 Chant of a Homesick Nigga
170 This Be The Worst
170 Time
171 The Woman Has to Die
172 Kill Them Before Ramadan
175 The Empire Comes Back
177 The Men From Jamaica Are Settling Down
181 I Neva Shot De Sheriff 
185 Carnival Days
187 Naked
191 Adultery
192 Going Cheap
193 Christmas Has Been Shot 
195 Two Dozen Babylon
196 Three Black Males
197 We People Too
200 Anti-Slavery Movements
201 Knowing Me
203 The Race Industry
204 Biko the Greatness
205 Derry Sunday
206 The One Minutes of Silence
209 The Drunk on Green Street
210 The Ride
211 To Do Wid Me
215 Nu Blue Suede Shoes
217 The Approved School of Reggae 
219 Do Something Illegal
220 Translate
221 The London Breed
222 Heroes
222 The Big Bang
 
from NAKED (2004)
226 Uptown Downtown
227 Superstar
228 Our Fathers
229 Slow Motion
230 Things We Say
 
from TO DO WID ME (2015)
233 Wake Up
236 Nu Run Away
238 Rong Radio
241 Touch
243 Responsible
245 Genetics
 
from REVOLUTIONARY MINDS (2017)
249 Earth Liberation Sound
250 Revolutionary Minds
253 President
254 Cool Down
255 Hot Like Jamaica
256 In This World
259 I Am a Revolutionary
260 Uprising Downtown
262 You Dream
 
UNCOLLECTED POEMS & LYRICS
264 The Traveller 
265 The Spirit Level
267 Tam Lyn (retold)
273 Difference
274 Happy Everyday
274 Strange Truth
275 Magic
276 Evolution
 
NOTES
278 Editorial note
279 Acknowledgements & notes on poems
283 Glossary of names