For years, I’ve been fascinated by a recording of Sun Ra and Henry Dumas called “The Ark and The Ankh”, which is essentially an interview. In it, Sun Ra points to humanity’s death obsession as the primary force holding us back from transformation. With all the Space X/Space Force nonsense in the news, I just kept imagining Sun Ra sitting on his front porch on Saturn telling these rich white men to get off his front lawn because all they were trying to do was either cheat or cause death.
Sun Ra Speaks From A Returning Saturn
Whatchu talking about a Space Force?
Ain’t no armies in space, just arkestras. My friend ain’t
die in no train station just fuh you tuh shoot your expensive car
round my way. I don’t ‘ppreciate the way you looking to my front yard
for answers I ain’t got to the problems you created on Oith. You live on a
dumb rock, wet with blood or better yet you crawled out from under it child.
& I seen you struggling to make sense of ice caps and tombstones & you
still cain’t even see me don’t matter black or white, you love death more than mothers.
What end up in the graveyard technicolor wishing y ‘all come up here tryna get on my level
with that bad ass attitude and cavalier lazer gun. You can’t cowboy your way outta gravity, dummy.
What you about to do? Put all your sex robots on Mars and see if they can live without
a man telling em what where and now? I’m tired of yall negus running to me
for answers every time you make ya own kitchen too hot so go on run
tell that before you dive in the ocean lil fish, you still got more
trench and phosphorescence to figure out fore you come
up here asking for my coordinates to fix
what ain’t worth keeping.
Casey Rocheteau lives in Detroit, MI. They are the creator of the Black Medusa Tarot and author of Knocked up on Yes (2o12) and The Dozen (2016).