Jim Crow Was Not Dead Just Resting
when it hunts for you—
the great authority
high sheriff on a horse among the barefoot—
shape shifter
benefactor unmasked
it can take away your children
your freedom
your life–
blind hatred
ignoble justice
when you’re on the run
it sucks the air from your lungs
so you hide—
you learn invisible—
you learn flea
on the hyena of fear
7 thoughts on "Jim Crow Was Not Dead Just Resting"
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when you turn your heart and hand to it, no one can out write you. This one is amazing, clear, and true. It was a pleasure to read it.
Wow Bruce,
It will be a challenge to live up to that comment.
Thanks
And the conventional wisdom was that it was gone… nice images reported from a perceptive perspective.
home run with the last stanza
66% of whites believe
they’re discriminated against;
i share in the privilege,
do you?
I hate it when you throw down a gauntlet you already know the answer to Jim. As staunch a supporter of what I consider to be progressive causes, I still feel a pang of resentment every time I read an editors comment that their journal has a special interest in publishing suppressed voices and then the list doesn’t include old white guys with a happy marriage thriving kids a home they own and a 401k. So, you dug this confession out of me. I don’t feel any better for having admitted it. Do you?
Terrifyingly true. Let’s fix it.
I think we feel that pang of resentment because we are used to being listened to, to being respected, to being chosen first – something new to the “suppressed” voices. Good, thought-provoking poem Bobby! “flea/on the hyena of fear” is a killer!