Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur Page B

same guard managed to tick me off again. "I don't want anymore trouble out of you," she said. "I don’t want to have to call the men again.”
    "You can call the national guard, the militia, the FBI, and anybody else for all i care. You can call your mother if you want to," i told her. As soon as she opened the door for lunch, i pushed right past her. I took my tray, sat down with the other women and started eating my lunch. I didn't know what was going to happen but i wanted to see what they were gonna do. I had about three mouthfuls of food left on my plate when the goon squad came in.
    "All right, get up and get in your cell.”
    "As soon as i finish what i have on my plate.”
    "Now!" they ordered.
    "I only have two spoonfuls left.”
    "Now!" They beckoned to the female guard. "Remove the prisoner to her cell." She came near me with her hands stretched out.
    "Don't you put your hands on me," i told her. "I'll walk to my cell."
    "Remove the prisoner to her cell," they ordered. She went to grab my arm and all at once the room was in motion. Chairs, tables, cups, trays were flying in the air. Everybody was either running to get out of the way or fighting. The female guard made a wild dash for the door. The male guards jumped on me. I was hitting, kicking, scratching, punching, biting, and i don't know what all else. They finally managed to get me in my cell and the other women locked in their dormitories. None of the women was seriously injured. I had a few nicks and scratches, but otherwise i was fine. And i felt fine. Some of that anger pent up inside me had been released. One of the guards was wounded. Somehow his face had got cut. He was the same little runt who had sat across from me in the hospital, pointing a shotgun at me and switching the safety on and off, talking about how he liked to kill animals. Nobody knows how he was cut or who cut him. But everybody knows that the hunter got hunted.
    Later that day they brought a photographer to photograph the evidence. The local newspaper later reported a "riot" at the work house. Some police and the sheriff came around and searched the jail. They said they were looking for the weapon that had cut the guard. They didn't find anything. That night they came and got Eva. They took her to the Vroom Building, the new jersey "hospital" for the criminally insane. She spent about three weeks there before she came back. The night she left i felt sad and guilty. Here i had got her caught up in my madness. I was sitting and thinking about her. So i sat down and wrote this poem:
    Rhinocerous woman
Who nobody wants
and everybody used.
    They say you're crazy
cause you not crazy enough
to kneel when told to kneel.
    Hey, big woman-
with scars on the head
and scars on the heart
that never seem to heal-
I saw your light
And it was shining.
    You gave them love.
They gave you shit.
You gave them you.
They gave you hollywood.
They purr at you
cause you know how to roar
and back it up with realness.
    Rhinocerous woman.
Big momma in a little world.
You closed your eyes
and neon spun inside your head
cause it was dark outside.
    You read your bible
but god never came.
    Your daddy woulda loved you
but what would the neighbors say.
    They hate you momma
cause you expose their madness.
And their cruelty.
They can see in your eyes
a thousand nightmares
that they have made come true.
    Black woman. Baad woman.
Wear your bigness on your chest like a badge
cause you done earned it.
    Strong woman. Amazon.
Wear your scars like jewelry
cause they were bought with blood.
    They call you mad.
And almost had you believing that shit.
    They called you ugly.
And you hid yourself
behind yourself
and wallowed in their shame.
    Rhinocerous Woman-
This world is blind
and slight of mind
and cannot see
How beautiful you are.
    I saw your light.
And it was shining.
    Most of the women benefited from the "riot," though. Over the next few days almost everybody was released or sent to some kind of program. The jail was