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Title: A Raging Flood of Tears Post by: Tracey on September 14, 2005, 05:29:24 PM A Raging Flood of Tears
September 11, 2005 by Ewuare Osayande they are pulling our dead out of the dead water now they are pulling our dead out of the dead water now like they pulled Till out of the Tallahatchie River and even if we did place the blame where it belongs would they get off like the men who murdered Emmett? while reporters blamed us for staying refusing to see the chains that tied us to the catastrophe that was to come like when they tied Malcolm Little’s dad to the tracks and left him for dead cause they knew the train was coming they knew the flood was coming they knew the levees would break they were warned but did nothing they were warned but did nothing they refused to prepare they are pulling our dead out of the dead water now counting them as if they were tallying votes but you cannot measure disgrace with a body-count and no one wins in death what have we now but our heartbeats? and tears and the whys of our questions keep coming even Jesus was said to have fed the poor with a few fish and some bread should we not expect more from the richest nation in the history of the world? scabs are being ripped away like the homes revealing old wounds bleeding sores infected by the toxic scum of lies we ingest as the media contrived words to describe the people when for five days they were treated like slaves time warped to the days of whips, chains and names that were not our own slave ship screams ancestors haunt in their hollers for help in front of cameras that don’t care sending an S.O.S. of sorrow to a world that looks on in pity and contempt but hope doesn’t stop hunger and faith can’t quench a thirst mouths parched in the parish surrounded by water but can’t take a drink yes, this is hell the smell of rotting flesh and feces the stench of death like Bush’s breath hot with deceit burning under a Louisiana sun merciless as a slave master hysterical heat gnashing teeth, bleeding gums and the children the babies delirious with grief and still they were trapped by the help that would come abandoned by rescue teams on Highway 10 the help that didn’t help the help that held them hostage at convention centers that became concentration camps no refuge no refuge no refuge for the women and their children and the elders dying in their wheel chairs smuggled to the super dome that became the prison at Abu Ghraib blind-folded by the darkness and tortured due to the ineptitude of officials sinking in a cess pool of paranoia held hostage by helplessness how long did it take Africans in texas to learn that they were free? we know how slow the gov’t can be when it comes to we who are Black and poor families again severed like before when the auction block was swollen with our blood and tears the years are of no consequence and now we wander the country looking for wives and sons, daughters and fathers, nanas, poppas, husbands and cousins and lovers and friends and mothers and nieces, nephews and … tracing the scent of love in hope of embracing them again on this side pouring through webpages hoping to notice a name that sounds like happiness watching the tv hoping to recognize a face that resembles our own looking for family longing for home and I can hear Nina Simone singing "Mississippi Goddamn Blues" we who picked cotton there grew families out of the very ground we never owned sucked down gristle just to survive raised God out the dust bowl and blew life into our bodies with nothing nothing nothing but the defiant desire to live and once more nothing is all we have but the defiant desire to live again resurrected like the Jeez that is us who will march a jazz dirge on down Bourbon Street to honor those whose bodies still float in the 9th Ward? who will rebuild the city that city of saints and haints? bring the reconstruction that never came after Lee surrendered the war jim crow knows let trent lott rot in the rubble of his plantation mansion for all those that perished unnecessarily yes there is anger a raging flood of tears Bush looted our taxes sent them overseas robbed our rights cracked presidential jokes as the smoke still rose "the soft bigotry of low expectations" is Bush’s to claim a smug racism he learned on his mother’s knee yes the U.S. is a Third World nation no corporate press can cover the truth now where dictators lie, cheat and steal then kill the poor that would defy them the emperor has no clothes his ass is exposed been stripped naked by his own shame time to name names there is a raging flood headed right to the White House and FEMA can’t rescue you now what has happened here is a crime the homicide of an entire city hear the prophecy my ancestors sung God showed Noah by the rainbow sign said it wont be water but fire next time the flames are burning! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Osayandespeaks@hotmail.com Copyright 2005 by Ewuare Osayande |