Tali | Poetry Vibe
Tali
This poet practices good karma and posts comments 40500
contest winner
lightness in the dark
WORDS ARE POWERFUL, USE THEM WISELY.

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Aunt Jemima

CATEGORY

life

Views: 654

It is a burden to know that this is not your real name

And that your real history has been faded into the backs of dusty old shelves that can no longer be seen with the naked eye

Did you like dancin, or shuckin? 

Or shuffling those tired feet of yours back into a shack that was fit for a slave? 

Who honored your name? 

You weren’t even compensated

We made jokes when I was younger

Called anyone wearing your signature red scarf an “Ant Jemima”

Those words haunt me

 I never knew that you existed outside of the cartoon drawings and a red bandana

You were a real person

You were owned

Your body was not yours

Your hands were not your own 

Even your breast fed children did not belong to you

If we had known what and who you were, would that have made a difference in the jokes?

We laugh at our pain, without even feeling the knife wounds in our backs

The chains shackled around our ankles 

And the terror that can come at night 

We laughed at you, made jokes out of your physical form and your clothes

We spat on your grave 

Allowed people to deceive your family

Hatred 

Hatred

Hatred and anger 

Is what I feel 

The deepest corners of my mind speak such dark thoughts 

And in another world they would be justified if carried through 

Who fought for you? 

Who told you that you were beautiful?

They robbed you & your family for generations while we ate.....

Pancakes

You were a slave in every sense of the word

A gutted fish in a sea of sharks 

WHO THE F**k FOUGHT FOR YOU?

Everything that we’ve ever had has been stolen

You who were owned by another human being

No different than you

Only the hue of a skin color

Which can stir up such a hatred of a color?

You were property, and we laughed

You were beaten, and we ate syrup and pancakes, and watched Saturday morning cartoons

I wonder how many more are like you….?

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COMMENTS

Contest Winner  

mlowe5 says:

Tali_sosweet, what a beautiful tribute to the hundred of thousnads of Aunt Jemamas on whose bent backs and proud shoulders we now stand and from whose sagging breast milk nourished and stretngthened our Ancestral generations. Continue to let he blood of memory pour out to your generation...energizing mine in knowing that the pregnant poetic minds of our youth are birthing forth in liberation. Indeed, free your mind, and you are. Peace, Love, Unity and more light. mlowe5
Contest Winner  

mlowe5 says:

Had to read this pen again. Powerful!
 

Xclusive says:

Such a POWERFUL write. I never knew that about Aunt Jemima. After reading this, I feel like I have to do research because I too used to make fun in my ignorance. Please continue flooding us with these gems. Keep the ink flowing!

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Contest Winner  

The Immortal Wize says:

POWERFUL an Deeper than the south, me my siblings and cousins made the same jokes and reference as well. We just didn't know then what we know now, this is what this millennial generation needs to know about their history without her and others alike there would be no stories to tell. This is why black is beautiful!

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mrmelody7 says:

Amqzin Mz Sweet T always going deep and soulful quite the writer you are Gifted One
 

Tali says:

These comments are so beautiful. I appreciate you all so much, thank you!

poems by this commentor


Contest Winner  

mlowe5 says:

You just keep writing Sister!...Keep preaching...keep englightening the masses who need to know understand and strategize from the knowledge of Ourstory! Peace, Love and more Light, mlowe5.
 

Tali says:

Thank you so much mlowe5, i'll keep pushing and you do the same!

poems by this commentor

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