remember the slavery
remember the lashings
remember the shackles
remember the rapes
remember the lynchings
remember the humiliations
remember the fear
remember the hate
remember the racism
remember the 400 years
of injustice
the promise of equality
without equality––
the hypocrisy of faith––
the hypocrisy of law––
the silence of justice
& fairness drown
why did abolition
take so
very very
long?
remember the cotton
remember the tobacco
remember the fruited fields
remember the toil
remember the plantations
remember the greed
remember the rich
& their well protected
wealth
remember the poverty
remember the suffering
remember the sickness
remember the pain
remember the generations lost––
remember the minds
so terribly wasted––
& the love
so brutally trampled
down
remember the gospels
remember the harmonies
remember the melodious voices
& the mothers
& the angels
& the sweet chariots
from heaven
how can hate
be so deep?
how can skin color
turn a human being
into a killing
automaton?
if Christ died
to make men holy
& we died
to make men free––
if our flag waved high
over foreign lands
to make the world safe
for democracy––
how could democracy
fail?
the American soul
is molded
of the love of Jesus
& the smoldering rage
of id & desire––
the cold-steel-face
of domination
are whites
conditioned slaves
of advantage
like pavlovian
dogs?
peace is
the blue of the sky
& the cleansing
of pure water
& the calming warmth
of embrace––
all the people
of the world
are one––
we are brothers & sisters
of one race––
united in grace
& love––
our hearts
cannot
fail us
remember