Jun 2021
the worst of humanity
arrived in unfeathered hues
eyes shimmering like quarry pebbles
snarls carrying teeth brown and broken
with long sticks firing thunders and death
the villagers ran like does
but blood ran and fear froze flights
the mad ghosts plucked them like ripe pawpaw
to chain them as cargoes for export to cotton fields
take the strong and able teach the rest to worship ghosts
fetch us two nubile virgins
one for the bed and the other a foot stool
loot all those gold and bronze artefacts and symbols
bring their rulers and elders to bow and wash our blades
show them that unfettered power and guile has no conscience
we are gods and goddesses
we rule the waves and on land we own it all
and to exploit and brainwash we call on the God of Rome
as we pray to gold silver diamonds and every treasures we see
dare protest or resist the might and power of the soulless slayers
we have plundered and looted
***** despoil incarcerated and divided
now we seize their minds use them as we've always done
our working and serving Punches and Judys on our sunken soil
And God help that one that kept his mind and dared to refuse to represent as a slave
arrived in unfeathered hues
eyes shimmering like quarry pebbles
snarls carrying teeth brown and broken
with long sticks firing thunders and death
the villagers ran like does
but blood ran and fear froze flights
the mad ghosts plucked them like ripe pawpaw
to chain them as cargoes for export to cotton fields
take the strong and able teach the rest to worship ghosts
fetch us two nubile virgins
one for the bed and the other a foot stool
loot all those gold and bronze artefacts and symbols
bring their rulers and elders to bow and wash our blades
show them that unfettered power and guile has no conscience
we are gods and goddesses
we rule the waves and on land we own it all
and to exploit and brainwash we call on the God of Rome
as we pray to gold silver diamonds and every treasures we see
dare protest or resist the might and power of the soulless slayers
we have plundered and looted
***** despoil incarcerated and divided
now we seize their minds use them as we've always done
our working and serving Punches and Judys on our sunken soil
And God help that one that kept his mind and dared to refuse to represent as a slave
It was in the mid-1930s, and Fred was 15. He was out at work one day when a posse of white men turned up at the family home. Where was the boy, they demanded. A little white girl had been pushed off a porch and her father, incensed by such disrespect, had decided it was Fred who did it and had to pay, even though the girl swore it was someone else.
When the men were told that Fred wasn’t there, they left a message. Tell the boy we’ll be back for him tonight.
There was no doubt what they meant. Fred’s father knew, as all black townsfolk in Gadsden knew, what had happened to Bunk Richardson.
The 28-year-old had been seized a few years back by a local mob of white men in relation to the ****** of a white woman in which he had played no part. They took him to a railroad bridge over the Coosa river on the edge of town and flung him over, leaving him hanging from a rope for several days for all to see.
Fearful that the same fate awaited him, Fred Croft fled. His father told him to leave town as darkness fell and never come back. And he never did.
At the age of 15 Uncle Fred fled north, never to return.
When the men were told that Fred wasn’t there, they left a message. Tell the boy we’ll be back for him tonight.
There was no doubt what they meant. Fred’s father knew, as all black townsfolk in Gadsden knew, what had happened to Bunk Richardson.
The 28-year-old had been seized a few years back by a local mob of white men in relation to the ****** of a white woman in which he had played no part. They took him to a railroad bridge over the Coosa river on the edge of town and flung him over, leaving him hanging from a rope for several days for all to see.
Fearful that the same fate awaited him, Fred Croft fled. His father told him to leave town as darkness fell and never come back. And he never did.
At the age of 15 Uncle Fred fled north, never to return.
