Three Poems by Marilyn Buck

1. Consumption

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TV captures imagi-
�nation, holds us willing hostage
�to manufactured need no longer basic
�basted together by corporate Frankensteins

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mr. mrs. ms.tified consumptives
�we cough up blood
�carnelian balances land
�on cuspidoric collection plates
�ATM pawn-brokers strategically placed
�on corners, hookers who promise
�promissory notes magnetically recorded
�binary debts, unforgivable
�at any price

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addicted and ill
�we dig deeper into fraying Calvin Klein pockets
�hope for immunization and magic bullets
�against fatality

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tubercular roots strangle inspiration

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—September 2004

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2. Jamaican Jump-Up

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warmed by ginger-spice drink
�and pungent foods galore
�women from former colonies
�most younger than liberation time
�jump up
�to the reggae beat
�turn out on the floor
�feet remember familiar grounds
�far away

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step slide glide
�stomp and shake
�women of the world throw down
�prison chains
�free for a heart’s beat

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we dance

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—August 1997

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3. Trinkets

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Today’s trinkets are much more expensive
�we pay to be branded with corp.s names
�we wear
�billboards for owners,

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all the lovely trinkets: charmed bracelets

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—August 2008

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Marilyn Buck (1947-2010) spent over twenty-five years in prison for politically motivated actions against U.S. government policies and in support of the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army. She wrote these poems behind bars, as a way to comprehend the reality of prison and continue her fight as a white woman against injustice, particularly U.S.-generated white supremacy. Paroled in July 2010, she died of cancer twenty days after her release.

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