{"id":25642,"date":"2022-02-04T12:51:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T19:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=25642"},"modified":"2022-02-04T12:51:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T19:51:28","slug":"jocko-graves-two-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=25642","title":{"rendered":"Jocko Graves two: Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Jocko as myself<\/p><\/div>\n

Jocko Graves two: Dreams<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was Jocko Graves real?<\/p>\n

He was as real as the meanings of myths and symbols<\/p>\n

As real as flags<\/p>\n

And paper dollar bills<\/p>\n

As real as non-ethnic statues of Jesus
\nAdorning the churches of Black and Brown People
\nWho willingly participate in a prayerful contradiction<\/p>\n

As real as dreams<\/p>\n

As real as The American Dream<\/p>\n

What is the difference between a Bitcoin
\nAnd a hundred dollar bill?<\/p>\n

Can the subconscious mind differentiate between
\nThe real and the imagined?<\/p>\n

Do you know who you are in a dream?<\/p>\n

Are your dreams and nightmares
\nMore real than mine?<\/p>\n

Martin dreamed.<\/p>\n

Gene Roddenberry dreamed.<\/p>\n

George Washington Dreamed.<\/p>\n

A patriots dream
\nThat saw beyond the years
\nWhere alabaster cities gleamed
\nUndimmed by human tears<\/p>\n

Jocko Graves was as real as the patriotic songs I had to sing
\nTo start my day
\nIn elementary school<\/p>\n

As real as The Pledge of Allegiance<\/p>\n

And The Star Spangled Banner<\/p>\n

As real as Colin Kaepernick\u2019s kneeling<\/p>\n

And the Diplomatic boycotting of<\/p>\n

The 2022 Chinese Winter Olympics<\/p>\n

Although we can\u2019t seem to decide when athletic events
\nAnd athleticism
\nCan be allowed to be used
\nTo make political statements<\/p>\n

Waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep
\nWe sing
\nIn all three states of mind<\/p>\n

But are most creative when we dream<\/p>\n

Bring my dreams and songs to me when I awaken
\nSo that I can refine them when I sleep and dream again<\/p>\n

Let me inhale my whole day and reforge it as I sleep
\nAnd heal myself in the most ancient of ways<\/p>\n

As I blissfully inhabit one third of my human life<\/p>\n

Let me sing the songs of my childhood again
\nBecause they still work<\/p>\n

And now<\/p>\n

I better understand their meaning<\/p>\n

Master Blaster Curtis Mayfield
\nD.C.\u2019s own Marvin Gaye<\/p>\n

Tell us.<\/p>\n

Tell us: What\u2019s Going On.<\/p>\n

Tell us: people get ready.<\/p>\n

Mercy, Mercy Me!
\nEverybody
\nIt\u2019s a Future Shock.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

And the world is still so full of WTF!<\/p>\n

American miasma
\nAnd the mindless chanting of
\n\u201cMake America Great again, again\u201d<\/p>\n

To reaffirm a nightmare<\/p>\n

Rather than to refine George Washington\u2019s dream<\/p>\n

I mean<\/p>\n

That is<\/p>\n

If he actually ever had it.<\/p>\n

Who broke the unwritten laws
\nTo cause this dark virtueless cloud
\nTo overshadow us all?<\/p>\n

COVID-19 proves that separate but equal is still alive and well<\/p>\n

As we live and die<\/p>\n

In the gigantic shadow
\nOf the microscopic<\/p>\n

Although separate is doing much better than equal<\/p>\n

And equal has only ever been an American dream<\/p>\n

The difficult conversations that America should have
\nThat we have been having for a long time<\/p>\n

Since before Archie Bunker got kissed by Sammy Davis Jr. on national TV
\nAnd before George Jefferson got sassed by his Black maid<\/p>\n

Because the network wouldn\u2019t let him have a White one<\/p>\n

Before Petula Clark held hands with Harry Belafonte
\nAnd Sidney Poitier sang Amen to Eastern European nuns.<\/p>\n

Swing low sweet chariot<\/p>\n

Swing down sweet chariot ship and let me ride<\/p>\n

Before Martin Luther King Jr. asked Nichelle Nichols
\nNot to leave Star Trek<\/p>\n

(Because Diahann Carroll in Julia was still two full years away)<\/p>\n

And before her character, Lt. Uhura, kissed Captain Kirk on a planet full of
\nsadistic
\ndecadent
\ntelekinetic
\npsychic
\naliens<\/p>\n

Who liked to watch<\/p>\n

Before there were three Catwomen and one of them was Eartha Kitt<\/p>\n

But she couldn\u2019t kiss Batman
\nEven though the other two had<\/p>\n

And before there were no Blacks in Mayberry RFD<\/p>\n

But do you recall any in Friends or on Seinfeld?<\/p>\n

Out of 8,000,000 stories in the five boroughs of The Naked City
\nQuite a few of them were missed<\/p>\n

Because even if \u201cyou\u201d are one in a million in New York
\nThere should be at least eight of you<\/p>\n

Before Granny freely waved the confederate flag on network television on the Beverly Hillbillies<\/p>\n

Proving that you could live anywhere in America
\nAs long as you were rich and White<\/p>\n

And before there was a Hooterville Junction<\/p>\n

Or, an acid trippy Green acres, too.<\/p>\n

Before Sticks, one of the few Black men on Happy Days, played the drums
\nAnd before he \u2014 the actor Jack Baker \u2014 actually died of cancer in real life
\nAfter a marginal career in golden age pornography<\/p>\n

America has needed to have a conversation
\nThat, actually, it\u2019s been having.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re not yet finished talking<\/p>\n

Not by a long way.<\/p>\n

Because conversations matter.<\/p>\n

Hidden under the masks of The Predator
\nAnd dancing in the Xenomorph\u2019s black biomechanical prosthetics<\/p>\n

We are the voice of Darth Vader<\/p>\n

The base voices that make the Klingons menacing<\/p>\n

And the voice that invites America to eat at Arby\u2019s, too.<\/p>\n

Tell us fairy tales for troubled times
\nOr, of a past some call \u201cthe good old days\u201d<\/p>\n

Which weren\u2019t<\/p>\n

When George Washington dreamed of a gleaming tomorrow
\nThat has never come<\/p>\n

Living in this once upon a time
\nCalled right now.<\/p>\n

But, I still like happy endings
\nNever no tears.<\/p>\n

I keep hearing people say that both America
\nAnd American Democracy
\nAre a grand experiment<\/p>\n

I ask<\/p>\n

An experiment upon whom?<\/p>\n

A sleep study?<\/p>\n

Sleep better by problematizing the word:
\n\u201cWoke\u201d<\/p>\n

While calling yourself contemporary non-religious Mindful Buddhist<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s dead, Thich Nhat Hanh can roll over in his grave<\/p>\n

Jungian analyst say that this chaos is the digestion of America\u2019s Shadow<\/p>\n

Bullshit, I say.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the American inability to digest the spicy masala stew
\nIn in its melting pot<\/p>\n

(Shout out Kamala Harris)<\/p>\n

I say to you, co-opters<\/p>\n

Thieves of the worlds great cultures
\nIdeas
\nAnd peoples<\/p>\n

You imprisoners of the ancient arts and achievements of:<\/p>\n

Persia<\/p>\n

Africa<\/p>\n

India<\/p>\n

China<\/p>\n

Japan<\/p>\n

and Greece<\/p>\n

Stolen treasures housed in Colonial museums
\nWhere Keats contemplated his urn
\nAnd wrote an ode<\/p>\n

Because contemplations matter<\/p>\n

Was Jocko Graves real?<\/p>\n

As real as Paul Reveres midnight ride<\/p>\n

As real as underground railroads
\nThat had neither trains
\nNor tracks<\/p>\n

Listen my children and you shall hear<\/p>\n

All of it is as real as you want it to be.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s only real when you want it to be.<\/p>\n

Real<\/p>\n

When we make it real.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The faithful groomsmen<\/p><\/div>\n

(By Heidi Lindemann and Michael Perry)<\/p>\n

(Art credit 1: Chase Hall \/ Dazed<\/a>) (Art Credit 2: Jalen Law<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jocko Graves two: Dreams Was Jocko Graves real? He was as real as the meanings of myths and symbols As real as flags And paper dollar bills As real as non-ethnic statues of Jesus Adorning the churches of Black and Brown People Who willingly participate in a prayerful contradiction As real as dreams As real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25645,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25642\/revisions\/25645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}