Descendants
He fixed his eyes
on the blazing sun,
she had shared its fire since their era had begun.
It had been their children's century
and many more.
It had been eternity
since they had longed for shore.
Revolutions had come and gone.
Blood
had been paid
from their evening
to our dawn.
Maybe it had been suffering
that shaped their souls,
maybe the new world's abominations
which tried to destroy
what was whole.
It took
days of pain
and years of sweat
to find
partial freedom
and half-won
victory.
It took scarred years
and swollen wounds,
to battle spirits
of unearned fury.
The woman stood with her womb
possessing a lifetime,
a people,
a reason to survive;
the man stood with his back,
his strength,
his woman;
both leaning on each other's hearts,
in spite of history--
alive.
Mississippi delta to Baltimore town,
New Orleans to New York state;
search for home,
another way,
kept coming.
The descendants kept trying
to leave behind hate.
Middle of the country
to waters on the coast;
but the ancestors' longings
haunted them as ghosts.
Bodies submerged in bitter waters
of years past and to come;
the past repeats itself
in new
bitter
ways--
creating new oceans
the people flow from.
It will take more
time
for justice to become whole.
It will take more
time
for the descendants to
reclaim
what thieves stole.
No comments:
Post a Comment