After Reading
the Autobiography of Malcolm X

M. Anne Sweet

When big dogs fight
black and tan torn
by white tooth
next to embers low
the once fire dying
under sky black
stars thrown out
the scattering
of bird crumbs
hiss the evergreen boughs
laid on coals hot
and the black dogs growl
the one humbled
the other's spartan dew
collects on rock.

Franciscan monk
black and tan
swallows the dew from
white toothed Christian mothers
who taught we are
brothers born from the same bitch
or not at all
Taught
night cries outside the convent wall
are wolves after scraps
thrown out to keep them at bay
Dawn he looked
for prints
their near thrill danger
dissolved under villagers
who walked the night.

The lying hearts of motherguiders
taught what they believed
the choke right catechisms
the separate ceremonies
the caring pretended at him
His boxed ears
deadened the growling silent
the question in his eyes
The followed rituals
the words said right
the meantnothing words
said right
kept the outside wolves at bay
the hunger they chewed
the white punctured holes
A growl lows its way up.

The big dogs growled --
it was Christ
Christ spoke --
it was Buddha
Buddha spoke --
it was Allah
Allah spoke --
and the wolves outside
were in him
were him
humbled all that he knows.