Wednesday, March 2, 2011

No. 16 The Great Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence

A figure

bent with

grief

A woman in an orange

sack dress her

head upon the

table

tears in her eyes

She remembers Jake

his strong embrace

his powerful tawny

hands

his strong back

He’s gone now

They found him

dangling from

an old oak tree

his arm limp

his body broken

castrated

he was lynched

white men talked in

the town as if

they were proud.

Jake’s death was an

Emblem of white manhood

Adorned in all its cowardice

all its sickness

throughout

all this the white woman

stood firmly

by the white man’s side.

Jake’s widow

cried

her tears will

not be

forgotten

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