JUST INSIDE THE DOOR

...and slash and dismember and move on and on and kill more and more a serial killer absolutely mainstream tall and good (looking) nicely dressed a dedicated fast-travelling serial killer straight from the heartland oozing mainstream poison waters a Republican a soft-spoken young man a believer in Christ Jesus a serial killer like The Pilgrims like the early serial killer settler pioneers beginning with the Indians and then xyz and then abc and always hunting down the poor and the niggers and the kikes and the wetbacks and the chinks and the faggots and the dykes and the heathen who unlike the serial killer do not believe in Christ Jesus I'm serious about I don't wanna die from mainstream contamination mainstream poison waters poisonous at flood-tide heights and depths of programmatic and legislative and scattershot self-righteous consecration to my death...

...JUST INSIDE THE DOOR June Jordan Manifesto of the Rubber Gloves So I'm wearing brand new loud blue Rubber gloves because I'm serious about I don't wanna die from mainstream contamination mainstream poison waters poisonous like statistical majorities that represent the mainstream poison waters poisonous like neo-Nazi perspectives that reflect the mainstream poison waters poisonous like scapegoat policies that distill the mainstream poison waters poisonous like the Congress and the Governor and the President and the Supremely Clarence Retrograde Thomas Court of Separated and Unequal and Proud about That Last Resort I'm wearing brand new loud blue Rubber gloves because I'm serious about I don't wanna die from mainstream contamination mainstream poison waters poisonous like the FBI and ATF and the INS and Secret Service Security Guards with or without a cut on anybody's finger and a pointless overblown Armed Forces afraid to fight unless it gets a not-a-smgle-cut-on-a-single-oneof-your-fingers guarantee backed by a would-be hero's welcome first for hiding the hell out of trouble when the point might very well be "The trouble" The 600,000 human beings dead already anyway I'm wearing brand new loud blue Rubber gloves because I'm serious about I don't wanna die from mainstream contamination mainstream poison waters poisonous like a serial killer start anyplace (next door...

...I'm wearing brand new loud blue Rubber gloves because I'm serious about I don't wanna die from mainstream contamination mainstream poison waters poisonous and swollen all around me and as far as I can see I'm serious because I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die —June 18, 1995 June Jordan, the poet, is professor of African-American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley...