7 x 7 x 7
Prosser crooned a blues chorus
wailed for a New Richmond. Hanged!
betrayed by house Judases.
Vesey beat the ju ju drums
for mass uprising to come;
betrayed! hanged like fresh deer meat.
Cinque rebelled through noble blood
of forebears. the Amistad
freed! a bold new star at sea.
Walker’s Appeal breathed black flames;
slave masters cringed like crazed beasts;
poisoned by masters’ blood hounds.
Nat wielded Christ’s holy sword,
blood gushed under sun and moon!
hanged. He stands by Michael’s side.
Garrison’s voice was thunder;
shattered “christians’s” peace of mind;
he stood like a moral rock.
Garnett’s words were like lightning bolts
to strike dead all slave masters,
through divine revolts like Nat’s!
Sojourner’s truths were sheets of
hail rained from Northern sky posts;
the North girded its loins.
Harriet was divinest
“Moses”. aura of psychic
breadth. slave catchers dumbfounded!
Fred’rick was ex-slave turned “prince”,
his hot language damned slave masters;
embraced the “Old Man” — John Brown.
Brown in white skin with Nat’s soul!
fiured blessed bullets at Harper’s
Ferry. hallowed the gallows!
Noble lives! I dedicate
Satchmo’s powerfully hot
classic — “King of the Zulus”.
Tashunka Raven
Tashunka Raven, AKA McArthur Gunter is a published poet who frequently on themes of Black liberation struggle and indigenous sovereignty, often using Native-based rhythms, stanzas and rhyming schemes with hypnotic alliterations and repetitions.