June-Teenth, 2009

yesterday, today and tomorrow


YESTERDAY

i can hear the laughter in the village
i can feel the racing heart beats of playing children
i can feel the beating of the hide on handmade drums
i hear the village
momma hum as she tends her little ones
i can smell the aroma of muddled grains
i can see the wild animals grazing open plains
i see our ancestors free i see decorative tribal swag
i hear the sassy in a young wife's nag
our ancestors reigning donning confident poise
no shackles no chains nothing refraining spiritual noise


and then...



we all know the changes that occurred
whether you choose to be silent because recalling it's absurd
i cannot this dialogue has been too conveniently forgotten
the smell of shiploads of our ancestors rotting
the selfish rapture of human beings
the forced dethroning of kings and queens
ultimately resulting in self-hatred
and low self esteem
melanin was our new name
identified by the skin we were in
we were chained shackled like domestic animals left in back yards
fed scraps and garbage cooked in lard
we were
degraded
humiliated
and disregarded
see our language was mad foreign to the European ear
to them we sounded like monkeys and our gestures were weird
our mannerisms were entertaining to them
we seemed naive like children
oh how they feared and then mistreated the "different"


i bring you to...today


much has changed in way we do things
we all stood together and agreed
on something
the spoken and validated dream of Martin Luther King
the moaning and rebelling
of our ancestors
now
doubtfully
yet with NOTHING left to lose
we had to choose so with hope in our hearts...
black folks along with the majority vote
(white folks)
we pressed a button, filled in an oval submitted with a no2 pencil
an assisted vote or absentee ballot
and chose Barrack Obama, the community organizer...
no feeling felt higher
even so, HE couldnt remove that divider
that would take a real insider
me
you
and them
us
she
and
him
they
those
and WE

so what about tomorrow...???

our children will talk about today
what will they say
they heard us when we said: YES WE CAN!
and then what?
do we go on to do what we believed we could?
do we become the change we hoped we would
do we
continue believing
reaching
forgiving
creating memories for our children to model
inspiring babies to want to be like their mothers and fathers
as i look at your faces
all the beautiful races
i see me
i see U-N-I-T-Y
i see true beauty
in the gathering of community...
celebrating
Juneteenth....