wailing for 16th Street

the love that forgives
would have a hard time that morning
it would find itself
clearing its hands
of smoldering rubble
splintered glass
and the broken bodies
of four little Black girls

Birmingham knows all too well
how bloody September can be
eating pain ripe and flush
that drops from hatred's own branches
we tend to forget today
that terrorism
often grows from familiar trees

four little girls
four Black babies torn from a world
that despised them from birth
four who'd never know sock hops
high school or their own babies
and Christ is trapped in stained glass
helpless at that point to lead

keep the wall in Jerusalem
we shall keep wailing here on 16th street
Meridian, Memphis, Selma, Greensboro
wherever hate and death meet on their dance card
because you see, somehow
we hope the tears and struggle
make some kind of sense
out of having a love that forgives
against a hate that never wishes to.

cotton gin.(for Emmitt Till)

one name
two words
and almost sixty years later
it still doesn't add up
your face before and after
should remind us always
of the twisted logic of bigots
found in the sneer of supposed supremacy
rope and bullets
and the embrace of cold Southern soil
some days
i remember seeing your face in that coffin
watching 'Eyes On The Prize' when i was nine
being told, 'don't look away son'
knowing you didn't have that chance
in a darkened barn in Tallahatchie County
with demons enslaved by antebellum logic
and mason jars of moonshine
not knowing your name
Emmitt Till
would live in their flesh

one name
and two words
and the weight of a cotton gin
and we wonder why the nation hates math
authors asked
what was Mississippi afraid of then
ask that question again
when election time for our president comes
ask that question
when Black men are still dragged behind trucks for fun
you haven't haunted them nearly enough
because there are those who still believe
racism and hatred will always add up
the devil's arithmetic
still burns like straight gin
the image of you mangled in a coffin
like your name
doesn't relieve the burn at all
but the fire this time and the next
will cleanse everything