"little rootie tootie"
for my brother david

my little brother
died in his sleep last night
at the age of 63—

david albert sinclair,
born in flint, michigan
may 31, 1945

passed away
in defuniak springs, florida
october 22, 2008—

a beautiful cat
from beginning to end,
poet & music lover,

12-year-old drummer
with tommy lattner
& the tom cats,

all star basketball
& football player
at davison high school,

president of his class,
brilliant student
& accomplished scholar,

off to dartmouth college
on a football scholarship
in the fall of 1963,

switched to poetry
& staged little readings
in a laundromat off of campus,

completed his studies somehow
& came to detroit
in the spring of 1967

to make the artists workshop
an even better place
with his selfless energy

& iron commitment
to the life of poetry,
music & social change

we had come to embrace
& make real
in our own lives—

oh my brother david,
my beautiful little brother
for 63 years,

editor of work magazine,
manager of the rock & roll band
called the up,

principal & backbone
of trans-love productions
& the trans-love energies commune,

chief of staff
of the white panther party
& the rainbow people’s party

& the defense team
for the cia conspiracy trial
in which i was a defendant,

who carried the entire load
for his big brother
while i was in prison,

spearhead
of the free john sinclair campaign
for 2-1/2 years,

producer
with peter andrews
of the john sinclair freedom rally

with john lennon & yoko ono,
stevie wonder,
bobby seale,

allen ginsberg,
ed sanders,
phil ochs,

archie shepp & roswell rudd,
cjq,
commander cody

& his lost planet airmen,
bob seger
with teegardin & van winkle,

the up,
bob rudnick,
jerry rubin & all the rest

with a cast of thousands
smoking marijuana by the pound
on the floor of crisler arena

& the vast public outcry
prompted by the concert
that got me out of prison
 
3 days later,
hallelujah,
to return to ann arbor

to work with my brother
& leni sinclair
& my comrades in the party,

gary grimshaw,
frank bach & peggy taube,
pun & genie plamondon,

skip taube,
david fenton,
& all the brothers & sisters

too numerous to mention
but my brother took care of us all
& made sure we had a place

to sleep at night,
& food on the table,
& some kind of raggedy car or van

to get around in
& do our work
in the community,

drug help,
ozone house,
the free people’s clinic,

the tribal council,
the people’s food co-op,
the free concerts

in the parks all summer,
the people’s ballroom
& countless benefit concerts,

rainbow trucking company,
energy sound company,
rainbow records & recording,

the ann arbor sun,
the live broadcasts on wnrz-fm,
the children’s community center,

the ann arbor blues & jazz festival,
the human rights party,
the ann arbor cable commission

where my brother was a commissioner
& ran for city council
in the 2nd ward

& worked & worked
for the good of his community
without thought of personal reward,

my brother david
gave everything he had
for the movement we were part of,

he gave
everything he had
& inspired his comrades

to give as much as they could
for as long as it seemed
that we would still be able

to make a transformation
in the social order
that surrounded us—

to make a better world,
to feed & house & care for
our entire citizenry,

to provide medical services
to people with illnesses
of every sort,

to champion freedom
of the press & public access
to all mass media,
 
to provide a genuine education
& access to vital information
for each & every person,

to place music & the arts
at the very center
of our educational system,

to support the nation’s artists
with life-long stipends
to secure the future of our culture,

to put an end to war,
to completely dismantle
all nuclear weapons,

to empty the penitentiaries
of all the prisoners
of the war on drugs,

to provide jobs and livelihoods
for each & every citizen
for every year of our lives,

to break up the monopolies
of the international corporations
over every aspect of our culture,

to handcuff the bankers
& real estate developers
who have ruined our country,

to elect a black man president
& legalize medical marijuana
in the state of michigan—

this is the kind of world
my brother david believed in
& lived & fought for

to the very end
of what we called the revolution
& then fought on
 
to clear the books
of the bitter results
of our failures,

then to leave ann arbor
with his wife liz, to settle
in healdsburg, california

to defend himself
against the federal drug charges
triggered by the snitching shure brothers,

& then to live his life
for the next 20 years
as a private citizen

committed to hard labor
with the clearwater construction company
digging up the ground & installing

huge concrete water tanks
at remote homesteads
in the hills of northern california

& conducting his research
into the history of warfare
& writing his brilliant poems

strictly for the pleasure
of expressing himself
through the composition of verse—

ah my brother david
gave up his working life in california
in 1999 & moved with liz

to the florida panhandle
to help liz’s mother
care for her husband

in the final throes
of alzheimer’s disease
& then settled in

next to a lake
on the outskirts
of the little city of defuniak springs

& partnered with his mother-in-law
in the operation
of her used book store,

surrounded by literature
of every description,
reading his murder mysteries

just like his brother,
going fishing,
writing his poems,

finally fighting his addiction
to alcohol & joining a.a.
& working the steps

with his new-found friends
who carried my brother
through his last 4 years,

proud of his sobriety,
in love with his wife,
& writing his ass off until the end—

oh my baby brother,
my little rootie tootie,
my heart & my right hand,

hero of the revolution,
unacknowledged saint
of the struggle

to create a higher form of life
on this ugly planet
through persistent sacrifice

& ecstatic practice,
doing the work
& taking the punishment
 
& doing the work
& doing the work
as long as we can

My website, johnsinclair.us, is back online!