A Retrospective Sonnet
My wretched body
You may slay;
Even chain my mind;
But my spirit is here to stay;
Like truth—til the end of time:
I’m a chosen ebony child of the All Mighty.
You have slain my mothers and fathers of before;
But their inherited sable soul spirit cannot be eradicated.
It has remained free every since the first generation landed on this shore.
Not for nothing did the Most High speak and I, dark like mud, was created.
The dawning of the new day is here and no more of my hued ones will you slay.
Vengeance is indeed the Lord’s; he will not be mocked and you will have to pay
Yet for the bleeding souls of all your children—for their forgiveness—I will pray.