The Last First

not the first heavyweight champion of the world,
airline pilot, quarterback in the NFL, college graduate,
doctor, teacher, big league baseball player, preacher-pastor,
ceo, mountain climber, university president, entrepreneur,
heart surgeon, inventor, governor or poet.

not the first mathematician, physicist, engineer, supreme court justice,
fastest man alive, publisher, reporter, ambassador, entertainer,
four-star general, best-selling author, executive chef, sergeant major,
scientist, basketball hall-of-famer, economist, secretary of state,
nobel prize winner, astronaut, law enforcer, chair of the joint chiefs,
senator, first responder or state legislator.

not the best trumpet player alive, bank president, husband, father,
organic farmer, rapper’s rapper or coach’s coach.

not an ? question looking for an answer or
hidden agenda claiming the authority of one.

not an exploiter of the commons.

Is the green hands nurturing fields, crops and rain forests.
is the water, food, education, clean energy, preventive health and intellect required.
is the humanitarian connecting music and economy, writing political notes legible to professionals, novices, students and elders the world over.
is the community organizer maneuvering citizens’ campaigns
expecting to implant knowledge, consent and saneness on impracticability

as renegade* and renaissance* expand the can in we and yes
at the early-light of this promising century
not the last, is the first
barack obama, president.

Haki R. Madhubuti

December 19, 2008

*Secret Service code names for President-Elect Obama and Mrs. Obama