CHANGE

Neat hot green Mississippi fields
Planted and plowed by the spirits of my heart
Backs bent to their labor
No longer are they flesh and form
Yet they are tangible to me
They brought the green sea to life

Remanded here as part of the peculiar institution
In this, the land of the almost free
Year upon year their generations could not wander
They had lost the meaning of that word
Remembrance of their language meant death
Some how those sweat soaked bodies knew they must survive

The green sea sprouts from a thick fluid vascular bed of memories
A field wet with the technology of today as it silently irrigates
The bones of the ancestors as they sink deeper into the depth of the green sea
They lay in a scarred battlefield with no markers or flags of remembrance
Nothing to shout their names no pictures of their faces
Here in this Mississippi field they rest
Chosen to be there as I am chosen to be here

The green sea parts to expose them for an instant
They need to see what profound change their lives inspired
They can walk unafraid and have their say in the front room of the big house
Children….we have realized our dream
We speak and now they listen
Like lions we roar
We read
We write
We laugh loudly and love without fear

They marked us down as one third of a human being
Branded and numbered
Look at us now sweet spirits
Rise up and look at your children
It is our voice chosen to lead the realignment of mankind
Open your eyes once again with pride and fulfillment at your strength
From the lands of our ancestors we have arrived to part the green sea
Look at who we are now
We have changed everything