in eighth grade,

we had a test on the baltimore bank riot

i got ten points where it asked why it started

and zero when asked why it ended

in ninth grade,

we watched a movie about the french revolution

it cooed over marie antoinette, killed for being a queen

yet said nothing about the peasants going out to die voluntarily

because death was a better fate than feudalism

they always told me

not to be so angry

what they never told me was

anger will set your soul ablaze

until the heat becomes so unbearable

you start ripping apart graves and letting the dead howl

they never told me my anger

could start the red chorus of revolution

revolution, they say,

never ends in anything but death

they never told me that

the haitian revolution started the first

free black republic

they never said that the human triumph over oppression

will stir the passion in everyone’s bones

the passion for a better world