For Youth Voices students - Aracelis Girmay's “Night, for Henry Dumas” lyrics

Henry Dumas, 1934-1968, did not die by a spaceship or flying saucer or outer space at all but was shot down, at 33, by a New York City Transit policeman, will be shot down, May 23rd, coming home, in just 6 days, by a New York City Transit policeman in the subway station singing & thinking of a poem, what he's about to eat, will be, was, is right now shot down, happening yesterday, happened tomorrow, will happen now under the ground & above the ground at Lenox & 125th in Harlem, Tennessee, Memphis, New York, Watts, Queens. 1157 Wheeler Avenue, San Quentin, above which sky swings down a giant rope, says Climb me into heaven, or follow me home, & Henry & Amadou & Malcolm & King, & the night hangs over the men & their faces, & the night grows thick above the streets, I swear it is more blue, more black, tonight with the men going up there. Bring the children out to see who their uncles are.