A Poem I Wrote

I'm not one to write poems--at least I thought I wasn't. But I was daydreaming in class and found putting words together quite therapeutic and fun. This poem I wrote a couple years ago as I was riding in a car through the Kentucky woods. I dedicated it to my Great-Grandmother, Edith Toussaint, who turned 100 last week.

If They Struggled Not

I drive past where people used to run

Run not for medals

Run not for pleasure

Escape danger hope

People

Those people

Black people

My people

Individuals ran through the beautiful scenery

That I see now

If they never ran I would never have seen

If they never feared I would never have dreamed

If they never dared I would never have studied

If they never hoped I would never have stood

Did they ever think that at the end of these woods

Lived a young girl

Creating her own legacy in 2008?

Unnamed stepping stones

For the good of a whole race and way of life

Unnamed faces

Blazed the forest trail

for thinkers

Doers

Finders

Lovers

Mothers

Of now and tomorrow

Knowledge of past is not the end of my journey

Just cuz I know what they did don' mean nuthin!

I take their speed

Agility

Purpose

Their torch

I press on

Daring

Praying

Hoping

Fearing

Their cries beckon me

To remember and never ever forget.

What a travesty,

A waste of history if I don't acknowledge

Thank

Hope

And follow their whispers

Recorded by the trees they passed

"Dream,

Make me proud.

Hope with poise,

Run!"

Til later...