Sadiq Bey is a New York–based poet.
Originally published and performed on Don Byron’s compact disc Tuskegee Experiments
(Nonesuch Records), 1991.
Reprinted by permission of Sadiq Bey.
1. while Sydney Bechet was
pullin’ pistols in Paris,
Nurse Rivers, who even
had a car to shuffle her
syphilitic children across
Macon County, her “bad
blood” cotton pickers,
the “joy” of her life,
was clearly chosen.
an appointment befitting
this darkest century.
2. a Dr. Clark conviction
a Dr. Wenger coversion
a Dr. Vonderlehr conception
a Dr. Peters spinal puncture
A Dr. Dibble hanging from
his ankles in the town square,
the Surgeon General’s schwartzegeist rising,
while Tuskegee falls asleep.
3. bring them to autopsy
with ulcerated limbs,
with howling wives,
bring them in, one coon corpse at a time.
(says Dr. Dibble,)
“a dollar a year for forty years
to watch these shadows rot.”
“they didn’t receive treatment for syphilis,
but they got so much else.
medicine is as much art as it is science.”
4. a row of crows on a rickety fence.
no book learnin’.
po’ as dirt,
never heard Monsieur Bechet
play the clarinet.
this experiment is not a crime,
but a rite of sacrifice
5. no banana splits on sunday,
no Brooks Brothers,
no color t.v. & waterbed,
no tickets to the county fair.
no treatment! no treatment!
no treatment! no treatment!