June Jordan
June se murió. Me enteré ayer domingo. Se murió el sábado mientras dormía. She was a great educator, a beautiful person with an inmese heart. Me arrepiento de no visitarla mientras estaba enferma. I wanted to take Quetzalli so she could meet her, but I never could manage to go. I never thougth that the cancer would beat her. She always seemed so strong and determined. I knew she had been seek for a long time already, but she always had manage to live. I just thought that she would we around forever. No era cierto. We have so few good fighters, that it really hurts when we lose one.June basically taught me to be a strong committed poet. She was a true poet of the people. Una revolucionaria con palabras, no con balas.
I'll been wanting to write a poem dedicated to her memory, but I won't. I feel that if I write a poem, I will put some type of closure to my feelings of loss. I don't want that, I want to keep the wound open all my life, I want to feel the need, my debt to the people that have died fighting so that I can go to school, so that my baby can enter any restaurant and any place without being afraid. Yo se que le debo mucho a gente como June. I will keep the wound open, because it keeps me impatient. I'm tired of being of whining. Quiero hacer algo. For now, I write, just like June taught me. Su vida es mi ejemplo, y sus palabras, mi plegaria.
June Vive, la lucha sigue.
amen.
June Jordan at U.C. Berkeley 1980s
© Lynda Koolish