Hang Time - Inside cover photo

Hang Time Before Time Hangs Us



Hang time from a money tree;

Kill the past - set the slaves free.

Hang time from a poet tree;

Set all the prisoners free.



Let’s lynch every second too

Each minute, hour and toc,



Live as now unfolds to you.

Choke rotations of this rock.



Dates, zones, happenings in space

They’re enemies to God’s race.

Murdering time kills the past.



Suspend history in space

‘Til you mutilate it’s face

Snap it’s neck - be free at last!



No more anticipation

Fear, hate or repetition

Of holocausts – genocides.

Time’s death – the last homicide.



Hang time for you & for me.

Hang time so we can be free.



Let time die for our sins

Then eternal life begins.


This photo is from a crucial period in my life and therefore selected it for the inside cover photo of my memoir. The photo reminds me of a fun story. The photographer/journalist arranged this picture to paint the story he wanted to paint. He didn't think I was crafty enough to have lead him to the story I wanted to tell. It was fun. I had just been elected to the Presidency of the student body and immediately threatened to take on the school's administration. I needed some bargaining chips and when you are from the ghetto and you grow up alone you learn very quickly that fear is far more influential than respect. I was right. The administration wanted to remove me. However they were so consumed by their battles with the faculty that they could not afford to alienate me. They needed an ally. It was a rare confluence of racial/gender politics coming together...the President of the University was a black female (the first) I was the first black and youngest student government president. So the president's killer political instincts were tempered by the fact that I could have been her son. In fact, we did develop a very nurturing mentor-protege relationship. She wrote me once and said " I admire your leadership skills." It was not lip service - she is to this day one of the greatest supporters I've ever had.