"reape" poems
When I was 16 and done
Cleaning out his horse stalls
Mr. Sodie Hampton said,
"Son, don't never work for less than
$1.50 an hour the rest of your life."
Momma who grew up choppin and pickin
Cotton said it a different way,
"A hard day's work deserves a
A good day's pay."
Momma also said,"You ain't any better
Than anyone else, but nobody's
Better than you either."
My Tennessee Momma also said,
"Son, your word is your bond and
A man looks after those weaker than him."
I learned as a man that children come first.
Syd and Sam taught me love
I'd never known.
We are all children of the same God
Breathed to life with the spark of
The Divine.
That's all why it ain't workin today.
We forgot all that.
We ain't all individual robots
With the strongest devouring the weakest.
And too many never worked for
Mr. Sodie Hampton and learned there's a
Floor beneath which we will not work
Indignities we will not bear
And disrespect we won't accept.
And our children deserve joy and freedom
And even skittles on a summer night
No matter their color or their clothes.
Too many of us got it ass-backwards
We make up all kind of reasons to
Hate and fight and **** and some
Even try to justify reape and ******
When Momma and Mr. Sodie Hampton said
It so different so long ago
In Tennessee and Missouri.
Aug 7, 2013
Aug 7, 2013 at 5:27 PM UTC