Back To Freedom

from the earliest drums
heart beating the rhythm
there has always been roots
to the reason for the truth

tribal scarring rituals
etch the clan's history in the flesh
mapping the memories
on the faces backs and arms
of the children so that they
can remember their way back
to the freedom that was taken
from their land and souls

before middle passage auctions and
plantation lullabies there was only life

dreams were unamerican and visions
of the spirit world which gave each body
its reason to discover its greater purpose

but those were stripped from the ancestors
like their tongues and days dancing in the sun
running with the angels of heaven in open fields

it was all brought to an abrupt end
the moment they went aboard
the good ship Jesus against their will

clothed in steel from neck to heel
some refused to accept this ordeal
and remembered Yonah's tale
of being throw overboad and swallowed
by a giant whale and jumped ship
to escape being ripped from the womb
of their mother's land only to make
their graves on the oceans floor
buried in the sand

those who were brought to the new world
received new scarring rituals of brand names &
family trees on their backs also tribal roots
were hidden as they were called niggers negroes &
blacks identified by color and no other method
then steretoyped by sleep'n'eat types &
told to go step'n'fetchit

death was expected from the lot they lived
waiting for the moment when the drums beat
would once again give them the heart their
forefathers did to fight against the serpents
praying for their children to rise and lead
them back to the land of sun where they
were once sojourners as the answer to
their prayers came in the souls of Gabriel
Prosser Denmark Vesey and Nathaniel Turner...