POETAS BRIGADISTAS III

RAY DUREM (1915-1963)

"Award "
[A Gold Watch To The FBI Man Who Has Followed Me For 25 Years]

Well, old spy / looks like I / led you down some pretty blind alleys, / took you on several trips to Mexico, / fishing in the high Sierras, / jazz at the Philharmonic. / You've watched me all your life, / I've clothed your wife, / put your two sons through college. / what good has it done? / sun keeps rising every mourning. / Ever see me buy an Assistant President? / or close a school? / or lend money to Somoza? / I bought some after-hours whiskey in L.A. / but the chief got his pay. / I ain't killed no Koreans, / or fourteen-year-old boys in Mississippi / neither did I bomb Guatemala, / or lend guns to shoot algerians. / I admit I took a Negro child / to a white rest room in Texas, / but she was my daughter, only three, / and she had to pee, / and I just didn't know what to do, / would you? / see, I'm so light, it don't seem right / to go to the colored res room; / my daughter's brown, an folks frown on that in Texas, / I just don't know how to go to the bathroom in the free world! / Now, old FBI man, / you've done the best you can, / you lost me a few jobs, / scared a few landlords, / You got me struggling for that bread, / but I ain't dead / and before it's all through, / I may be following you!

Ray Durem nació en Seattle, Washington, en 1915. Abandonó su hogar a la edad de 14 años y tras un breve periodo en la Marina trabaja como obrero en diversos oficios mientras estudia en la Universidad de California donde, en 1931, se afilia al Partido Comunista. En 1937 parte hacia España a luchar por la República, participando en la ofensiva de Brunete de ese año, donde fue herido. Volvió al frente al año siguiente, tomando parte en la batalla del Ebro. La poesía de Ray Durem atrajo la atención de destacadas personalidades negras como Robert Williams o Langston Hughes, entre otros, siendo un referente revolucionario y cultural para el Movimiento Negro americano de los años sesenta. Aparte de sus trabajos publicados en diversos periódicos, revistas literarias y antologías poeticas, es conocido sobre todo por su libro “Take no prisoners”, publicado póstumamente en 1971.