By Usha Nellore
It is Coretta Scott King they fear
her voice from her grave
about the knave
who will now lead the law of the land,
the law that permitted
the institutionalization of slavery,
the law that let the killers go free
who viciously attacked and brutalized
Emmett Till-a child, merely 14,
in Money, Mississippi,
his open casket funeral in Chicago
that showed him beaten
and bloated with the hate
that brought him death,
the bravery of his mother
by his corpse as she stood
and showed the world
the dangers of being black
in the USA,
and now they are up again,
beset by feelings of inferiority
leading to behaviors of supremacy,
the snakes rear from their pits
their hisses sibilant
in the land
their fangs itching for strikes,
they say,
“We have power now
and we will show
we haven’t changed,
We will flaunt our new theories
of persecution–
We will say
we are the ones under the boot,
We will play
the identity politics you play,
We will make golden hay
rewriting history,
We will assert
all of slavery is a myth–
The shackles,
the Middle Passage,
the sales,
the rapes,
the whips,
the lashes,
we will change the way
it has played!
Enough guilt for the white man,
we will cram the world
with propaganda
and we will whitewash
our sins
pinned on us
as though we’re donkeys,
we will bray
we didn’t invent slavery,
we ENDED it
because we are great!”
And everything that went in between,
Giving the Black man the vote
but not letting him vote,
penning him in inner cities
and telling him that’s where he stays,
giving him separate but unequal
and telling him he’s equal,
bombing out his businesses,
attacking him with dogs
and hoses
and guns
between his eyes
in his brain
planting
that he is subhuman,
washed by new theories,
that past
can be erased,
especially when the ancestors are distant
who outraged and raged,
all of their deeds can be
ERASED!
“Not me,
Not me
mister,
I didn’t rape your mother
or your sister,
no blame on me,
enough done already,
no more to give,
No more of that guilt!
No more setting the past right,
If you say,
“Black lives matter!”
I’ll say,
“All lives matter!
White lives matter!
Blue lives matter!”
I’ll say you have no right
to put yourself front and center,
I’ll say no more the shame,
I’ll say I am dying fast,
I won’t last
at the rate I am going,
with drugs and suicide,
I’ll say I will rise
against the race baiters
and the traitors
to America,
they don’t have to come or stay,
I’ll say it is ME first,
today!
I will rewrite history,
in sessions
in the senate
I will clean up Sessions
and insist he’s a civil rights champ,
he’s a lamp
that lit the darkness
in Alabama
he fought the KKK,
I’ll say
he’s a bastion of the law,
he has no flaw
I will rewrite history
because I feel wronged,
by the white man’s burden,
I feel burdened by the sudden change
in my fate,
the loss of prestige,
the challenges to my privilege,
Not me,
Not me mister,
Not me for the blame
Not me for the shame!”
Carolyn Bryant whispered,
“What’s the use?
They’re all dead anyway!”
Emmett Till never assaulted her
but times were different then
he was already dead
and she was too afraid,
to say,
that the boy was innocent,
it was too late
to articulate
the truth then,
and by her sin
she’s been flayed,
all these years
she’s been flayed–
so she related
in whispers–
They’re all dead anyway,
what’s the use,
Perjury doesn’t matter,
murder doesn’t matter,
bombing,
lynching,
beating,
berating,
hating,
baiting,
jailing
after
segregating
don’t matter
because,
“They’re all dead anyway!
And Sessions is not to blame
Can’t impugn him because
for civil rights
he’s been a champ,
for voting rights
he’s been the same,
a lamp in the darkness
of Alabama!
That’s why we won’t let
Coretta Scott King
speak from the grave,
that’s why Elizabeth must behave!”
Usha Nellore