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.

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