Al Sharpton leads a campaign, Farrakhan hugs Boikin and Kanye loves His Cousin

"It's such a change
For us to live so independently
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?
Can't you feel a brand new day?"

Click Here for FULL Brand New Day Lyrics

Are you queers serious?

I can see the scene playing in my head as I delete 13 forwards of the Kanye West story, 11 forwards of the Al Sharpton story and 7 or so emails emploring me to get involved with the planning for the Millions More March.

That ever illusive nod.

So, What:?

Kanye West

"Are we really that hungry for that ever illusive heterosexual nod..."

46% - "The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!"

HIV Prevalence, Unrecognized Infection, and HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex with Men --- Five U.S. Cities, June 2004--April 2005

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5424a2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/mjloundy/

"So Goosey Poosey joined Cocky Locky, Henny Penny and Chicken Little, and they went along as fast as they could."

Remember the folk tale Chicken Little? Well I have been living a Chicken Little nightmare for the last 10 years or so. A lot of Black gay men have AIDS and HIV. So what else is new? Well, a study published in the most recent MMWR in which 46% of Black gay men in 5 cities were found to be HIV positive, that's what's new. Now, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky and Goosey Poosey all have articles, open letters, social marketing campaigns, and subsequent research designed to address this new and emerging issue. How sweet. The only crazy thing is that this is not a new and emerging issue!!

As recently as 2004 an article published in MMWR suggested that a third of Black MSM at an Historically Black College somewhere in the Carolinas were HIV positive.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5332a1.htm

In 2002 we heard about young Black MSM in six cities who tested positive: Out of a total 920, 150 tested HIV positive! That's 16% and nearly all of them were unaware of their status.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5133a1.htm

Remember in 2000, in response to an MMWR article, Chicken Little (All Ya'll), Penny Henny yet in tow, was busy again running to tell the king that the sky was falling.

Again in 2000 we heard that racial and ethic minority men were accounting for an increased number of infections and that among these men African Americans were the most impacted.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4901a2.htm

For the last 10 years my Chicken Little nightmare has been the image of me working my a#% off to prevent the spread of HIV and every two years looking up to see the motley crew, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Goosey Poosey, and Cocky Locky running to tell the king that the sky is falling!

Now once again we're running to tell the king.

"The sky is falling!" cried Chicken Little. "We must tell the king."

"I know a shortcut to the palace," said Foxy woxy sweetly. "Come and follow me."

"But wicked Foxy Woxy did not lead the others to the palace. He led them right up to the entrance of his foxhole. Once they were inside, Foxy Woxy was planning to gobble them up!"

The question that remains for me is: How many researchers, MMWR articles, and morbid study findings do we need to know that it's bad. How long will our HIV prevention efforts be reactionary and guided by hysteria? I've often wondered what kind of a living I could make as a researcher if I, once every two years sent out an email that said: "It's bad, and it's getting worse." I think I could save CDC and countless universities millions of research dollars. Dollars that could quite possibly go to fund the prevention efforts of the organizations that would be charged to react to my declarations.

I say all this to say: It's bad, and it's getting worse. We can't possibly be surprised when these data emerge to remind us. So why are we all running around with chicken little screaming "The sky is falling!"? The sky has been falling for a while! I say, "To hell with the king", cover your head!

"After that day, Chicken Little always carried an umbrella with her when she walked in the woods..."

Is it really all that...

According to a report in the Washington Post, both Mayor Anthony Williams and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond have called for Wilson and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to include gay men and lesbians in the planning of the Millions More Movement
http://www.washblade.com/2005/8-12/news/localnews/pastor.cfm

Is it really all that serious? Really? The million man march in 1996 (which I attended as a closet queen) excluded Black gay, bisexual and transgender men. The National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum actually asked to be included on the dais and was denied inclusion by the organizing committee lead by Farrakhan appointee Rev. Benjamin Chavez. Chavez has since converted to Islam and is known by the members of the Nation of Islam as Brother Minister Benjamin Muhammad.

Louis Farrakhan himself has a long history of crimes against Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender people. Chief among what I consider to be these crimes is the rhetoric that children growing up gay and lesbian in the Nation of Islam have to hear about themselves and the fear that these children experience everyday.

Now Black Gays want to be included in the organizing of this event and NAACP and other Negroid Bastions of Power have spoken to urge Louie and company to include the fags and dykes in their plans. Washington Blade and, of course, Southern Voice, which both seem to be run by individuals who love to point out the failure of mainsteam Blacks to get in line with all that mainstream gays do, runs articles exposing this sin. And everyone is up in a tissy about Black Gays being included in the planning of the Millions More march.

Is it really that serious? Are we, proud, Black, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people really that hungry for that ever elusive Black heterosexual nod (approval) that we would stand with this group after they have demonstrated that we are not wanted? When everyone involved in this group has a history of homophobia and perpetuating violence against us with their severe and hateful rhetoric, do we want in? After 20 to 30 years of Louis Farrakhan's evil rhetoric regarding Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans people is patting Keith Boykin on the head and tossing him a biscuit really enough for us to feel like we can march in October and be truly marching for US. Is throwing a doggy biscuit to one of the safest -Here I refer to Keith Boykin as safe regarding his class, gender presentation, masculinity, and politics- Black Gay men on the planet really what we Black LGBT folks needin order to rubber-stamp Farrakan's march?

I'm not convinced.

Why all the poems?

So it occured to me: Damnit I'm a poet! Considering that there may be a couple of people who read my blog, and contemplating about if I died today or tommorow, I've decided that I don't want a freakin Return of the Sith blurb to be my legacy. In so far as I have a legacy, and in so far as I can impact or in the minutest way shape my legacy; My legacy will be: Poet. Not AIDS Prevention worker, not social worker,not fat queen who hangs out at the Starbucks on 7th street! POET!

So read my poems. These are just some of the nastier ones. Lots of penises in these. I hope that I can share the more revolutionary ones at some point. I have some short stories that I'll post as well.

Please enjoy and be well,

Kevin E. Bynes

Poem

Whore’s Confession

I’ve stopped looking at men.
I take them inside of me
Allow them to love me
Without loving me
Ingest them
All while refusing to look at them
Or anything
other than their bodies

I refuse to look at them
Consider them for anything
Other than this moment
Or that we could rest,
In love together, from:
loneliness
wanting
searching

ynkuyaJune 25, 2003

Poem

Revolution

If
Black men loving Black men
Is the revolutionary act
Then
Our fucking must be the revolution
And if
Our fucking is the revolution
I’d bet we could fuck our way to freedom baby

I bet we could
I bet if you lay down
On your back, your dick in the air
And take the fullness of my ass as I engulf
Your man-ness
I could ride you
Around the world until we
Undo globalization
Until we
We fucked George Bush out of the white house
And out of Iraq!

If you place your front teeth flush
With my nipple between them
If you bite until you taste blood
Smell pain and hear my scream
You could probably play my nipples until
We fucked away sexism, gender bias,
Silence, and
Death from no voice

I believe that Black men loving black men
Is the revolutionary act
So black men fucking black men is
The revolution
I am fucking my way to freedom

Fucking away
Racism
Homophobia
Sexism
Misogyny

If you threw my legs over my shoulders
Entered me, ever so gently
And softly messaged my prostate
While staring into my eyes
Listening to them sing sonnets
And all kinds of funky jazz
To the rhythm of us
I bet we could
Eradicate hunger

If I felt the fullness of you
If I, bathed in pleasure,
Screamed
Your name
I bet I could scream
Until the sanctions are lifted from Cuba

If I painted pleasure
On your sphincter with
My tongue
Lapped up salty hints
Of musty you onto my pallet
I bet if I licked your ass like that
I bet I could lick until
Hate left the world

This revolution
Is
Being loved

This revolution is
Being fucked without fear

This revolution is
Fucking without fear

This revolution is
Living openly
Loving openly
Fucking openlyI bet we could fuck our way to freedom baby.

Poem

In light,
breath on my neck,
skin on my skin,
tongue in my ear,
my mouth,
my ass,
teeth on my nipples
my lips
my scrotum
chase trepidation away

here,
under the sun’s light
salty residues
of you
eradicate uncertainty

your fears,
like sweat and semen
dry away
leaving saline memories
detected only by taste buds and
olfactory glands

under the sun
Beatings
promised by hate, by love,
strangers, neighbors
brothers, fathers and mothers
are a fowl after tastes
swept away by the thrust of my hips
your hips
our thrusting into each other
into light

the threat of immunodeficiency,
excommunication, termination,
and being disowned are lost behind the
rhythm of our cries
the ecstasy of our coupling
the transformative
strength of our fucking
without fear.
Ynkuya 6/29/04

poem

With nervous hands
Trepidation shapes
Sensations and moments
Like clay
Fired to perfection
Broken by uncertainty

Intimacy has become
His slave
Bending
To his will
No longer daring to venture into
The spaces and moments
She is native too

On the other side of this touch…

Underneath this caress…

Hidden inside of this feeling…

Micro demons lay, ready to
Insight riots in my blood

Every sacred stroke
Hallowed kiss
Blessed moan
Has been tainted by
What if?

What if…
What if…
What if…

latex has been compromised?
I am point zero two percent?
Abstinence should have been my choice?

What if…
What if…

This kiss gives way
To viral blemish?
Bacterial ooze is waiting
Behind this blow job?

What if…

I thrust my tongue deep
Into places deemed
Inappropriate without
The
Awkward
Guarding
Latex

Just for a chance to
Actually taste him
My tongue dancing to the symphony
of labored breath?

I ride his dick
Dry
Raw
And unsheathed
Finally
Fucked in trust?

I relish
The taste of his skin
The warmth of his semen
Rolling down my throat?

I snub the dangers
Promised by blood
And bite
Just too deep
Into his nipple?

If he bathes my insides…


With the cascading streams
Of holy fluid
Never to be spilled?

Ecstasy, intimacy,
And notions
Thought much to brave
In this age?

What if we fucked without fear?
What if we fucked fearlessly?
What if we could
Throw danger, out the window
With her sister trepidation
Dance in the face of promised
Mortality
Fucking without fear,
Fuck fearlessly?


Kevin E. Bynes
05/21/04

Poem

The penis that offends
By it’s existence
Threatens because of its nature
Calls anger
Into eyes
Pelvises
Penises
Of

Marauders

Of
Angry phalluses that
Respond to desire
Seduction
Met by desire
With

Scorched flesh
Bound wrist
Broken skin
Punctured lips
Big sticks
big guns
Bigger than that niggers
Dick

Big black
Obscene
Violates
Threatens
To destroy
A claim to
Those who need
Protection from it’s
Potency
And crave it

Angry phalluses
Trapped in cloth
Beat against their prison
Beat against that nigger
Really just a penis

Rendered uselessBy power

K.Bynes
1/04