Poem of the Week: Malcolm X, February 1965

MALCOLM X, FEBRUARY 1965

E. Ethelbert Miller

i will die this month. how

i do not know. still there

is much work to be done. i

am afraid not for myself but

for betty and the girls. some

nights i stay awake looking

out the window, a gun in my

hand. i know how cruel people

can be. i have known hatred and

blindness. there are brothers

waiting to do me harm. i will

die for them. i will love them

as only i can. may allah be my

witness.

 

 

from

First Light: New and Selected Poems (1994) 

 

[The last of this February's Poems of the Week, all memorials to Malcolm X. This one by E. Ethelbert Miller, puts the reader into Malcolm's head as his death looms, a different approach from that taken by the three previous poets.]