|
Flying in the breeze
In the back of a pickup truck
Like a big X
A Jim Crow X
A slavocracy X
A battle flag for
The glory of the South
Back in the day
When tortured people
Bellowed sorrow songs
Muffled by the traditions
Of the South
The battle flag to preserve
Slavery and Jim Crow
The battle flag that
Shouts, a Confederate,
A Reb who wants to
Leave America for a
Past, where Southern
Gentlemen and Belles
Of the South live in glory
Of bloody repression and
State suppression of hearts and minds
The battle flag of terrorism,
Lynchings and bloody whips
Children for sale
Mothers for sale
Fathers for sale
The battle flag, nostalgic
For enslavement, then
Repression and suppression
Of democracy for Black folk
Fascism lived in the streets,
Courts...everywhere, if
You were Black
That big X flows in the
Breeze, or on a truck
Window or license plate,
Bragging: yeah, I use the
"N" word, often
And I curse Mexicans
And Indians and all those
OTHER people who ain't white
But cowards pause for
A moment, thinking they're
So smart, teeth grinning,
Declaring, It's not racist,
I'm just preserving history
And traditions of the South
That big X leading the
Charge to yesterday for
Tomorrow, going way
Back to Lee and Davis
Driving that message home:
Racism, fascism, white-
Supremacy, repression,
Suppression, violence
They don't need the klan:
The police are the klan;
The courts are the klan:
The judges are the klan;
Congress is the klan
Backward racists in
Pickups with big X's
Are the klan
And prisons are the new
Plantations, if you are
Black, Raza or Native
The truth is, they
Are preserving history
A racist, fascist, white-
Supremacist, violent history
Bull Conner history
Alabama and Mississippi history
George Wallace history
Pre-voting-rights history
Pre-civil-rights (unfulfilled) history
Separate but unequal history
Klan history
That big X: the Constitutional right to
Flaunt fascism in the name
Of democracy to X out
The voices and rights of OTHERS
Let's be clear, white supremacy
And racism and fascism are not
The history and traditions that
Democracy loving people want
|
BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator Poet, Joe Navarro, is
a Literary Vato Loco, creative writer, poet and teacher, who currently
lives in Hayward, CA. His work is inspired by poets Amiri Baraka,
Sonia Sanchez, Lalo Delgado, Gloria Anzaldua and others. His poetry
echoes experiences and sentiments of oppressed people who struggle for
justice, equity, self-determination and humanistic self-definition. Contact Mr. Navarro and BC.
|
