POETRY: Kiziah’s Story

for Mom

PART I/II

By SHELIA BLAND

We gave up a relative
To the status quo
Not voluntarily, of course

–When you say “we” what do you mean, exactly?

Well, I wasn’t there.
No one was there really.
We aren’t guilty in that sense.

–Then what are we talking about?

We are not guilty
None the less, we are all responsible

–All responsible?

Yes, all responsible.

–But no one can give testimony, because
no one was there…

We cannot give testimony, no.
But we must bear witness…

It was sometime
One time
Anytime.
In any case, it was a past event.
Yesterday—
Last year—
Last century….

Yet, I can assure you
It happened.

We were rule followers
We got along
We got ahead

This was true
Yesterday—
Last year—
Last century.

We were not of the one percent
Barely of the ninety-nine percent—
More like the zero percent.
This was true
Yesterday—
Last year—
Last century.

We were the servants
We were the sharecroppers
We were the enslaved

We were the prep crew–
The cleanup crew—
The salvage crew—
The sewage crew—

We did the dirty work—
Work others disdained to do.

We were rule followers
We got along
We got ahead

We did the meanest of chores
We got along
We got ahead

We moved up the menial ladder
From fieldwork
To house work

We followed the rules—
And helped keep the system in place.… Read the rest “POETRY: Kiziah’s Story”