Juneteenth

 For the umpteenth time I been

try’n to tell you 

today and tomorrow

how we had to beg steal n borrow

for so long damn long

to right this wrong 

to make you understand

Garland had brought ole Abe’s command

to make you see the writing on the wall

that proclamation on the wall, y’all

that proclamation that sent out the call

Abrahamic exclamation that say stop to end it all.

Put an end to it yall!

For the umpteeth time, I say I say I say

Hey! bodies of enslaved people used

bodies whipped, scarred and abused

as collateral

for more chattel

like cattle

until the umpteenth generation

from away back there in Africa nation

and along the way in honky miscegenation

even unto Haitian liberation

and later Haley’s imagination

implanted in roots of captivity

bearing fruits of productivity

through blood and sweat and tears

with underground railroad gears

in defiance of mason-dixon fears.

Yet two and a half years after the fact

the end of slavery became at last an act

announced  belatedly to Texas blacks

in spite of obstructive Texas rangers

at Galveston by Major General Granger

when he brought news of emancipation

of Abe’s neglected proclamation

way back there on June 19th, 1865. 

Now it was time for blacks to thrive

‘though we be say’n it for the umpteenth time

folk didn’t know it ’til that Juneteenth sign

when Granger say You now be free

cuz You been free since ’63!

Underground Railroad Rides Again!

Glass half-Full