Endurance...

CATEGORY

life

Views: 156

 

 

 

 

 

Having origins

In the worst of circumstance

Making the best of the conditions

Gradually making progress, even while under duress

On the table which was prepared for us

…for the occasion

We were …the answers…

For a world …which would be the test

 

That we would be prepared

For some unimaginable future

Where society would be shaken

Our bodies would be taken

A voyage undertaken

Those who sought us ill

How many who died,

Cast into the stormy seas

Denied their contribution

To the enemy

Yes this was a war

Their heroic deeds

Made posthumously

Even when those

Who continued to resist

Were punished grievously

All was not well… for those

Having a destiny to fulfill

Unaware the Creator

Had more in store for us

For those who are chosen

Have destiny to face alone

Yet how long would this be

Separated from tribe and family

Past differences were dismissed

For to defeat this  new enemy

Required a different strategy

Made unity a must

New languages were made

Bits and pieces of several

Tongues were combined

People tied collectively

In suffering, wept bitterly

Although a rich heritage

Filled the people

Those who would rule

Sought to erase

The continuity

A history of

Black people

Their gift

Replaced with

In essence …a life of

Indentured servitude

Dealt with cruelty

Forbidden to be

Taught to read and write

As if hidden knowledge

Would displace

Quiet wisdom

Of inquiring minds

People overcame barriers

Yet untold in the books

Of what history was

Part of this new

Community of souls

Whose truth was told

In tears and blood

To sweat and toil

Pain and death

Distilled of this

Experience

Came such

A love

As it was

In this

Modern day

Practically

Unheard of

Your children

Trusted to

The care of

Those who

You’d deprived

Those who rebelled

Did not long survive

Although, someday

Everybody knew

This would be

Reversed

So the

People

Prayed in

Whatever way they could

Worked hard in the hot sun

Sang spirituals to pass the word

That which was of necessity

For us to be ensured

A measure of times

That we would tested

Hardened to the coming storm

Suffering in sadness as those

Whose utter disgust they swore

Would last forever, to protest

The induced indignity inflicted

Yet could not break the spirit

Of this new community of people

Suspended in space+time

After being displaced from

The country of their birth

After a terrible uncivil war

Newly emerged people

Shock and awed awake

What was this illusion

Was this sort of being

Half asleep, half awake

Half+freedom, dumped

Unceremoniously

In the streets

Profound

Homelessly

All the while being

Caught up in the wake

Of people defeated,

Still filled with hate

…deplored…

Despised by those

Whose labors enriched

Those who they provided

…removed from the stability

Of a society they’d known

And by whose skills had grown

Accused now of being thieves,

Murderers and rapists, lazy…

Sow the fields and pick the produce

In the hot sun …really, what absurdity

By those whose raping ways were legendary

Those stolen in the former days by those

Who created broken families of people

Sold like cattle …for a life to be determined

By the whim and fancy of commercial utility

Now free to do what they could do

Half imprisoned for disobedience

The other half ignored,

Half treated with suspicion

Still another half destroyed

We’d come full circle, spinning in the wind

From slaves to presidents…

Some ask, how about now

What’s keeping you people down

You’re pulling each other down

From one with skin like bronze

And hair, like wool

Once hung from a cross

Or hung from the same tree

From which the cross was made

Casting shade on me and mine

You must think

You’ve got it

…made…

 

 

C2