Incident
Contents
Poetry
He came back and shot. He shot him. When he came
back, he shot, and he fell, stumbling, past the
shadow wood, down, shot, dying, dead, to full halt.
At the bottom, bleeding, shot dead. He died then, there
after the fall, the speeding bullet, tore his face
and blood sprayed fine over the killer and the grey light.
Pictures of the dead man, are everywhere. And his spirit
sucks up the light. But he died in darkness darker than
his soul and everything tumbled blindly with him dying
down the stairs.
We have no word
on the killer, except he came back, from somewhere
to do what he did. And shot only once into his victim's
stare, and left him quickly when the blood ran out. We know
the killer was skillful, quick, and silent, and that the victim
probably knew him. Other than that, aside from the caked sourness
of the dead man's expression, and the cool surprise in the fixture
of his hands and fingers, we know nothing.
Summary
This poetry describes about horrible murderer which happens to black people.
Author
Born in 1934 as Everett LeRoi Jones, after the assassination of Malcom X, Baraka changed his name to Amiri Baraka in 1965. His voice, even by contemporary standards, was a strong one: unabashed, fearless, full of spite and controversy. Since then, critics have sought to justify his overt sexism and homophobia in a number of ways (he was trying to hide his own homosexual impulses, he was using the colloquial language of the streets, etc.). His poems are raw and unapologetic, whatever the reason. They fall prey, at their worst, to the dangers of military nationalism and bigotry. His protest poems promote rebellion at their finest, and the desire for reform in a society that often does not respond to those silently oppressed and swept under the rug.
Racism Issue
Incident by Amiri Baraka is a poem about systemic oppression and racism against black people in the United States. Racism takes the form of killing black people by means of shooting. Black people were brutally shot and their bodies left on the streets. Maybe the perpetrator is someone the victim knows.
Reference
- Baraka, Amiri. 1969. Incident. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved in January 1 2021.