Dimitri Reyes
We’re Still Wailers
after Amiri Baraka’s “Wailers”
for Newark and the Rebellion of 67’ and 74’
Wailers are we.
We wail. We be wailing
pero don't get scared.
We can wail to you in smiles,
wail in a silent way como Miles.
Nothing happening here but the positive.
Unless of course, you the negative.
Wailers. Eyo Wailers.
Yeah, Wailers.
We could translate 500 pages of whaling.
Ahab confronting the huge white mad beast
of we
speeding death across the sea
of streets wailing
cuz a life of white
can’t exist
without all our color.
Wailers, on top of a whale we wail.
Hard working folk of hot jazz and salseros.
Brick City babies humming boogaloo & blues
out the womb we come singing.
We Wailers, alright.
Hail to you Baraka!
Hail to you Algarín!
Answer us one question in your seance outcry:
How are domino table and taxi cab the same?
How does one Rebellion and one Rebellion make 2?
We see the world where
I and eyes say yes
to transformation.
Wailers. Yerrrr!
Where my Wailers at?
(we’re here!)
Subterranean night n’ bronze color Magis
working inside the soul of the world.
Wailers.
Eyes seeing the world's being.
Eyo Baraka,
I see you, Baba!
Come into us as real vision and action,
show us who we are for real.
Nations within nations, brilliant flame
wailing energy for truth. Under Mingus’ old Porkpie,
Shorter’s telling us what’s good with the Weather.
Wail on Nork
We’s ALL Wailers
y como es?
We wail for all we’s worth.
Call upon Willie Colón in his crowded wail vessel,
call upon Monk hanging out til midnight
telling us we holding the keys to the funk & salsa kingdoms.
This is real wailing not tale telling.
Ask WBGO who we wailing for,
who the Wailers be.
We just be
cause we Wailers.
Blue Blowers.
The Real Rhythm Kings of El Gran Combo
We sing philosophy.
The one-two step to the 5,6,7
mambo Hambone precise findings.
Image Masters of the syn-co-pa-ted.
Wailers & Drummers.
Wailers & Trumpet stars.
Wailers & the Box cookers.
Wailers & the Sax flyers.
Wailers & the Bass thumpers.
Wailers and hey!
Waaaiiiiil!
Waiiiiiiiil!
We WEEEEEEEEEEEEPA!
Wailers!
Trombone benders.
Magic singers.
Pietrians.
Algarínians.
Barakians.
The only Tranes faster than rocket ships. Shooooot.
Cut a rocket in our pocket and put a chord on the wall of the wind.
Wailers.
Can you dig Wailing?
Can you?
Dig Wailing?
Call me Bud Powell: imitate this—
listenlisten
Spree dee deet sprree deee whee spredeee whee deee
My calling card hasn’t changed.
The dialectic of silence.
The sound approach.
Life being filled further with each number we sing.
Some say primitive, but Wailing’s all the same.
No longer kept underground
because the underground will be downtown
soon to be all over town.
Keep that in mind when you call me something Dukish—
something saxy.
By my real ancestor’s name.
But each time the world changes
we wailing is still in it,
so make it, be in it
and call me
so I call you
we call we
eyo Wailers
yo Wailers
yo
yo
eyo Wailers
WAIL!!!!
Dimitri Reyes is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist, content creator, organizer, and educator from Newark, New Jersey. He has organized large-scale poetry events such as #PoetsforPuertoRicoNewark and read at venues such as The Dodge Poetry Festival, Split This Rock, Busboys and Poets, and the American Poetry Museum. Dimitri's forthcoming book, Every First and Fifteenth is the winner of the Digging Press 2020 Chapbook Award and some of his other work is published or forthcoming in Vinyl, Kweli, Entropy, Duende, Cosmonauts, Obsidian, Acentos. He is the Marketing & Communications Director at CavanKerry Press and is an Artist-in-Residence with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Learn more about Dimitri by visiting his website at https://www.dimitrireyespoet.com/