It’s Been Black History Month

It’s been Black History Month
And one more week
And I’ve thought
And
Though about what
To say

Being white and not feeling
Privileged
But
To be convinced it has been there
That other white people might
Have taken back
Through
All my eschewing

Brave Black people
And we know because
Too many of
Them
Killed
Or lynched
Or lynched before have been killed

Or easily
Horribly denied
And I can only imagine
If the water fountain
Or indeed the whole damn restaurant
Or sets on
The bus
Were denied

For the sake of denying me

Small razor cuts
With large ones to the jugular
Also
Fires
Tar
Feathers
That splinter skin
Then pull it from the body

And I won’t have it
Lord
I hope I never have it
And insofar as I might mean
The other way
I won’t
Have it
Either

And I guess this is something like
What I’ve wanted
To say
And Blacks will say it better
Of their own
Though I want
Someday
For your own and mine
To be
By hook or crook
Or speech
Or gentle protest using buses
Or what have you

And by the love of God
Come down
To make us rise
Please
All of us
Someday

C L Couch


Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash 


Martyr Medgar Evers

The Black man fell and helpless lay,
A gaping wound upon his back,
A witness to the savage way,
A beast had made it foul attack.
. . .

[from a placard—I looked some but could not find the source]