My Revolutionary Music

I wrote the poem further below as a model to my students for writing parody poems. The original poem comes first. My apologies to the genius that is Nikki Giovonni.

Revolutionary Music

by Nikki Giovonni
(published in The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, 1996)

you’ve just got to dig sly
and the family stone
forget the words
you gonna be dancing to the music
james brown can go to
viet nam
or sing about whatever he
has to
since he already told
the honkie
“although you happy you better try
to get along
money won’t change you
but time is taking you on”
not to mention
doing a while
song they can’t even snap
their fingers to
“good god! ugh!”
talking bout
“i got the feeling baby i got the feeling”
and “hey everybody let me tell you the news”
martha and the vandellas dancing in the streets
while shorty long is functioning at that junction
yeah we hip to that 

aretha said they better
think
but she already said
“ain’t no way to love you”
(and you know she wasn’t talking to us)
and dig the o’jays asking “must i always be a stand
in for love”
i mean they say “i’m a fool for being myself” 

While the mighty mighty impressions have told the
world
for once and for all
“We’re a Winner”
even our names--le roi has said--are together
impressions
temptations
supremes
delfonics
miracles
intruders (i mean intruders?)
not beatles and animals and white bad things like
young rascals and shit
we be digging all
our revolutionary music consciously or un
cause sam cooke said “a change is gonna come”

I had a lot of fun with this. Here's my version:

My Revolutionary Music
by Brent Wescott

you’ve just got to get stoked for kaja
googoo
and a flock of seagulls
forget the words—
like, gag me with a spoon—
you gonna be dancing to the music
u2 can go to
africa
or sing about bloody sundays
since sinead o’connor told
the pope
to go “fight the real enemy”
not to mention
the smiths   
warning thatcher
“the queen is dead”
and the pistols demanding 

 “anarchy in the u.k.”
then kurt cobain
does a whole
song they can’t even sing along to
“here we are now
entertain us”
bowie and jagger dancing in the streets
while sting is dreaming of the blue turtles
fer shur we bad to the bone 

tears for fears said to
shout
but modern english already said
“i melt with you”
(and you know what they were talking about)
and hear spandau ballet ask how much is
true 
i mean depeche mode says “i want somebody
to share the rest of my life” 

While the americans tried to tell the
world
for once and for all
“We are the World”
even our names are built to provoke
banshees
misfits
creatures
bohemians
pink dots
bunnymen (aren’t they cute?)
not madonna and springsteen and new white
kids on the block or other
safe boring throwaways
we be slamming to
our revolutionary music physically or un
cause henry rollins said “if you really want to rebel
against your parents:
outlearn them”