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today, what shall we tell our grandchildren?
(apropos an ode to Margaret Burroughs)
today, the more things
seem to have changed
the more they have remained
the same and for us,
likewise, the question too:
what shall we tell
our grandchildren who are black
and live in land where
blacks are being killed
daily because of the skin
they were created in…
how do we clearly explain
when for them the color black
is merely the expression
of the beautiful night…
where for them jim crow
is a beautiful bird
sitting atop a green tree
and discrimination is identifying
one colored building block
from another
and racism's new definition
is an olympic running event
or running a race to be president
and running eagerly to get a seat
at the back of the bus is cool
because that’s where
all the “in” kids are;
how do we get them to see
that in a so called colorless society
it’s alright as long as you’re white
because any other life color
does not matter---
that their school mates
may one day
grow up and don a badge
licensed to shoot them down
in the same streets
where they once played
as "colorless" friends...?
with confident assurance
that the truth
will surly set us free,
we must simply tell
them like it is---telling them
the truth---that the more
things seem to have changed
the more they’ve remained
the same---a different toilet
but the same old fecal matter
scented with a new odor of death;
we must tell them never to forget
who and whose they are---that
each time they look into the mirror
they see the reflections
of the beauty and creative genius
of the most high creator---
indeed, we must tell them the truth;
that the hateful, murderous behavior
meted out towards blacks today,
simply mirrors the reflective mind set
of days of old when strange fruits
hanging from the limbs of trees
were not kiwis and jack fruits
but charred bodies of blacks
who refused to be less than
the created beings they were---
that there remain veiled oppressors
who will pat them on the back
with one hand and shoot them
in the back with the other…
today, with our ancestral sagaciousness
we must tell and show our precious ones
that while the dream has gone to vision
the reality is yet at hand to be achieved…
that theirs is the responsibility
to take the baton and race to the next level:
onward to the finish line
where full freedom, liberty and justice is won.
