The first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move, so when we said that the revolution would not be televised we were saying that the thing that's going to change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film...                                                                                         ~ Gil Scott-Heron

As he spreads his tall, lean wings
sounds like the honoring of a Queen or a King
so tune your dial to hear the choir of angels sing.

Temperatures heating quickly in the late May sun.
Look! What's that in the sky? . . . it's the Gil Scott-Heron!

As the Heron flies heavenward . . . White people arrested
for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial (for real, look it up).
So, puh-lease, America, could you just chill out a little,
wipe off that spittle, and puh-lease, America,
could you close your 24-7 mouths and say a prayer . . .
as the Heron flies heavenward into the thin yet colorless air.

People on the streets with paper cups, or on
the bathroom floor with the want ads mopping up,
or talking with the brothers saying "whassup?!" . . .

As the Heron flies heavenward our children being drugged
because they can't sit still because inside their skins
runs the blood of the ancestors, Africans!
from the Motherland where it all begins and born to dance
and move on down the avenue with style and grace,

America, could you puh-lease remember that the place
was founded on freedom (except for the slaves and Natives),
the freedom to move, freedom to groove but when the game
gets rigged too many brothers and sisters lose.

As the Heron flies heavenward . . .
children getting groped in airports,
being doped by their electronic drug of choice,
chatting and spatting but do they really have a voice?

Puh-lease, America, could you stop the pesticide,
and puh-lease, America, stop the homicide,
and pretty, pretty puh-lease, stop the genocide.
Hey, America, could you puh-lease tell us,
whose side are you really on?

And we tune the dial
to the rank and file
and that long green mile
as the Heron flies heavenward
to the other side . . .