“unforgivable blackness”<\/strong><\/p>\n

the more things change
\nthe more
\nthings stay the same:<\/p>\n

they looked at us
\nand called him \u201cthe black menace.\u201d
\nJack Johnson was the embodiment of their
\nworst whitemare\u2014
\na black man who dared
\nto be free.
\na black man who could see,
\nwho saw himself black,
\nsaw himself bold, saw himself beautiful and
\nstubborn, swimming
\nthrough white foaming
\nrapids, battling against raging racist currents,
\njumping relentless roaring waters into
\na calm but shark infested sea.<\/p>\n

if they only knew.
\nthey do not know how
\nto know.
\ndo not want to know\u2014
\nthey destroyed Black Wall Street in Tulsa.
\nTHEY let THE MOVE FIRE
\nburn in Philly\u2014
\n(\u201cgrab on to whatever is left \u2026\u201d)
\nrandom-white-men lynched James Byrd in Jasper.
\nstand-your-ground lynched Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
\npolice lynched Michael Brown in Ferguson.
\nblack-story-well says
\nanother one of us is always next.
\n-2-<\/p>\n

broken memories. broken dreams.
\nwandering visions.
\nwondering thoughts.
\nremembering who we were\u2014
\nwho we have become?
\nugly in our beauty. brutal in our love.
\nseductive in our poison.
\nradioactive to the touch.<\/p>\n

unforgivable blackness:<\/p>\n

primordial blackness.
\nblackness so black so bright
\nso, \u201cthis little light of mine,
\ni\u2019m gonna make it shine\u201d
\nblackness,<\/p>\n

still shining in us
\nfor reasons
\neven we
\nfail to understand \u2026<\/p>\n

for Jack Johnson (1878-1946)<\/p>\n

mwatabu s. Okantah
\nc2014
\nwww.mkepoet1.com<\/p>\n