The Heritage of Slavery (1968), Mrs. Fannie Lou Hammer.
Personal reflections on the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and all the others whose name we know and do not.
I.
This love won’t keep us safe
In bodies they love to hate.
This love won’t keep us safe
In skin they love to taint.
This love won’t keep us safe
In the chains they kept us in.
This love won’t keep us safe
In a country built on our pain.
This love won’t keep us safe.
This love won’t keep us safe.
This love won’t keep us safe.
But maybe, this love will keep us sane.
Black love.
II.
“They know what they’ve done to us”
The american flag stands
Proudly
With white and blood stripes
Black blood
Struck
By white
Stripping us
Apart
Under the stars
Watching
Strikingly
As we tear
Apart
White.
Red.
White.
Red.
And we call this a symbol
Of a country
Built on freedom and liberty
But who’s free?
And whose liberty?
White.
Red.
White.
Red.
And we call these symbols
Of innocence and valour
But who’s innocent?
And whose valour?
So we burn it
To ashes
A symbol of sins and repentance
Yours and ours
And we kneel
A symbol of resistance.
Black.
III.
Survival.
What do you know of survival?
Do you know how to plant a seed
And water it into existence
Or how to light a city
At day
And at dusk
What do you know of survival ?
Do you know how to live a life sentenced
Freely
What do you know of survival?
Do you know how to love the life
Of a breathless man
How to bury him
Like a seed
And water him into a revolution
Do you know how to light a country
In protest
From day till
Dusk
What do you know of survival?
If all you’ve known is how to take a life
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