When the Revolution ComesThe Last Poets

When the revolution comes
(When the revolution comes)
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
Some of us will probably catch it on TV, with chicken hanging from our mouths
You'll know it's revolution because there won't be no commercials
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
(When the revolution comes)
Preacher pimps are gonna split the scene with the communion wine stuck in their back pockets
Faggots won’t be so funny then, and all the junkies will quit their nodding and wake up
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
Transit cops will be crushed by the trains after losing their guns and blood will run through the streets of Harlem drowning anything without substance
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
(When the revolution comes)
I hope pearly white teeth fall out of the mouths that speak of revolution without reverence
The cost of revolution is 360 degrees
Understand the cycle that never ends
Understand the beginning to be the end and nothing is in between but space and time that I make, or you make, to relate, or not to relate, to the world outside my mind, your mind. Speak not of revolution until you are willing to eat rats to survive
When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
Guns and rifles will be taking the place of poems and essays
Black cultural centers will be forts supplying the revolutionaries with food and arms
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
White death will froth the walls of museums and churches breaking the lie that enslaved our mothers
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
Jesus Christ is gonna be standing on the corner of Lennox Ave and 125th St trying to catch the first gypsy cab out of Harlem
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
Jew merchants will give away matzoh balls and gifilte fish to anyone they see with an afro
Frank Schiffman will give away the Apollo to the first person he sees wearing a blue dashiki
When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)
Afros gon' be trying to straighten their heads and straightened heads gone be trying to wear afros
When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
(When the revolution comes)
But until then you know and I know niggers will party and bullshit
And party and bullshit
And party and bullshit
And party and bullshit
And party...

Some might even die before the revolution comes