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I Choose Us: The African
By Rudolph Lewis
Wherever we may be, when
nightriders
thundering in the fog, shaking the
village
I choose us
Corralled at the sea fort for the
king’s pleasure
we sang our royal song of betrayal
& defiance
I choose us
We many bodies, many tongues, many
histories
in the dark feces-filled belly of
far-reaching ships
I choose us
When we ignite the flames of the
One, when heaven
revolts in wind & wave, we
collapse in shipwreck
I choose us
We count the living & the dead
on a captured isle
of mountains, marooned, we raid
plantations to live
I choose us
Learning the Christian language
& way, from slaves
in backwater Charleston,
remembering warriors dead
I choose us
Speaking Chic-ca-saw &
Cherokee—native blood, falling
singing its death chant, running
in woods that never was
I choose us
Exodusters & Assembly on
Liberty Island, ain’t yet free
we work, we be—strong arms
decide who eats & lives
I choose us
From Southampton to the Superdome,
they own us
drown us in blood, they do what
they want with us
I choose us
Scattered like the grain in the
winter air, blowing
I sing songs of war, dirges too,
and love lost love
I choose us
When a people is dispossessed,
eternally awol
corralled onto tiny urban islets
of gloom & woe
I choose us
With dreams beyond sparkling
jewels & gleaming
mansions, & block stretch
limousines, righteous
I choose us |
