Thanx to Pete & Metal Monkey for yr comments. I've revised the poem, integrating yr comments & some more elements of the original painting that inspired it.
Fela!
From “Fela: Amen, Amen, Amen†2002 by Barkley Hendricks
Spliff like a log, yr head in a cloud,
ancestors hang around yr shoulders
like smoke,
in skintight gold lame you squeeze
the barbwire heart of Afrika.
No animal wears that skin.
Akuba (Oranyan)
Oh egungun in straw mask expanding infinite heads,
terrifying liars & cheats & snakes & crocodiles,
animals in human skin
with their Swiss bank billions infamy
they got it infamy,
they think
1 touch can kill their billions
just like that just like that just like that!
Run from Fela run!
He who carries death in his pocket/
who hides smoke in his shit/
who lifts millions in his underpants/
Akuba (Oranyan)
Ride the organ under yr fingers preaches truth.
Yr sax blurts & farts & screeches truth.
The buzz saw zzzzzzzzzz in yr throat tears lies from the air
& teaches truth.
Phat & fresh green smoking truth.
No animals in yr skin.
Sweat balls yr forehead,
you stamp the demons in their limousines.
Never tire of baiting words
Yab dem Fela yab dem
Never sell out! Never a saint!
What use to people a man without sin?
Better yr flawed arrogance,
the flayed beauty of truth,
a dirty concrete block hewn into a staff of Oranyan,
a purple plastic cup with yr face stencilled Black
President
Akuba…