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CATEGORY

just different

She imbued her testimony
with the waves of emotion
a stolen people have drowned in…
Her spirit marred by the scars 
these stars and stripes cut deeply 
into her brown skin…
She channels the cries
of the souls who survived the crossing 
to find lives awaiting
more violent than the tossing ocean,
only to have the tongues they had spoken 
cleaved from their throats
with the sharp cracks of whips,
humanity abandoned in holds of those ships
along with their sense of identity.
The ancestors spoke through her,
and she testified of violated thighs,
of offspring ripped from their bosoms,
and of genitals severed 
stuffed in dead throats that couldn’t 
swallow this indignity. 
Despite all this she stands 
proud before crowds
poetically heralding justice!
Courageously posing those “What ifs,”
that makes lily whiteness go flush.
Broaching subjects they’re loathe to discuss
with any honesty…
like, “Where is that donkey and land 
you had promised me?”
“Who shall make amends
for my losses?”

- HymnAgen