Guilt O’ guilty ~ here take my hands, my teeth, my voice! …

In Memory of Jesse Washington (1897 – 1916)


I am crawling on my knees
rolling in the dust and the cinder ashes
of this tragedy, coals to my feet

Spittle hanging from my chin
my eyes swelling in their shrinking sockets
of angers flames consuming me

Thoughts spinning in my head
my heart exploding in my barrelled chest
of the torture mankind can render

Reason running with these blackened legs
my integrity, is it skulking in green bushes
of the questions only conscience guesses?

Jesse Washington, seventeen, is burning
my senses revolting at such torrid history
of racism, the shared pain of human shame

I am questioning in my tortured brain
my teeth grinding in my silent mouth
of hatred, the true price for each of Jesse’s teeth

I am standing on these burnished feet
my courage feins returning as a ‘Glory’ soldier
of writing new stories, black ink, whitened paper




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