comrade

your flag is black

and mine is red

i never met you

and we probably would have disagreed

even argued

i read your statement

you said you had a father’s broken heart

and a broken body

yet with that broken body

you held off the pigs

with that broken heart

you set revolutionary fire

you who crossed an ocean

far from your native Holland

fleeing the results of the og fascists

who destroyed your homeland

come here to the stolen home of those who tutored Hitler at their knee

you joyfully went about your work

the work of both red and black alike

you were, you say, a head in the clouds dreamer

living a nightmare

you knew john brown in your soul

just like I know nat turner in my soul

you invigorated us

showed us what it takes

you said

look you bastards

put the books down

put aside your petty quarrels

realize fascism is already here

and we gotta stop it

so you laid your body on the line and did your part

and gave your precious life

and your broken heart

and your broken body

as a revolutionary

who knows never again means never again

you are a martyr

you live in all of us

you loved life so much that you realized that this we live

is no life

and you resolved to stop it

by any means necessary

I don’t dole out the term comrade lightly

I’ve been burnt by too many who use that term

to win and break trust

especially not to white people

but

i say that as a black man half your age

minus ten

i wish we could have met, comrade

no pasaran