From Cover to Cover
From being forced to cross the Atlantic Ocean under the cover of stars
to volunteering for a mission above every ocean to the stars.
From being stared at on an auction block and having the family sold and separated
to ten years running, in the most watched block, as a priceless model of the family unit.
From working for peanuts and fertilizing somebody's land with the blood that runs off of the back
to owning the land, working the peanut, and transfusing the blood back.
From being robbed of a spoken language, losing a religion, a culture, a god
to influencing: the language spoken in cultures, songs in religion, and the pathway to God.
From losing a hand and a foot or a leg for not being fast enough to get far enough away from “the man”
to using the hands, legs and the feet in running farther and faster than the average man.
From the king, of a nation, beaten into a personal slave and called names like coon, spook, and “Boy”
to a boy named King who would grow up to “win over” a nation for the equal freedoms of every person.
From generations that had to take the last names of past presidents
to being the name that can give a future generation its first president.
1 comment:
Yes, but no. Hard not to admire and like this, but for week 9? This is doubled all right all the way along, but there's nothing hidden or unsaid here--quite the contrary, it's all right out and in the reader's face.
I read your piece about the 'things I see as I walk along the street' (haven't commented there yet). That's an example of a piece that says what it wants to say without being explicit.
Here's my translation of your 'things I see': "The black urban experience is a minefield: city services as basic as sanitation are scanted; alcohol and cigarettes are scourges to health and yet, for some people, the only comforts they have; there is no escape from social dysfunction and pathology, and even looking out for the most basic and simplest human needs become sources of shame, anger, and stress for the community."
Now, you didn't say a word of that, but that's a fair translation. In the theme, on the contrary, you say it all, and there's nothing left to translate.
It's like zen writing--you can't get there until you decide that the only way to get there is to avoid the obvious path that would take you there.
Confusing enough?
Post a Comment