60 Seconds of History

This is a spoken word piece inspired by Colson Whitehead’s, The Underground Railroad, a 2016 Oprah Book Club selection.  This fictional work of art is my current homework assignment for creative writing class.

On 10/18/16, each student will have to recite a spoken word piece that will hold the attention of the class for 30-60 seconds.  Each piece has to be orated from memory.  There is no pretty way to paint the brutality of slavery.  The more receptive we are to the horrific accounts that forged African American’s history in the U.S.  The clearer our view will be of the modern day politics that forces our hand in voting for “the lesser of the two evils.” So this is what it is:

60 Seconds of History

Artist Unknown

Sorry, Massa! I’s clumsy is all.

One drop, to stain a pristine garment is all it took

To know the bite of a Silver Wolf,

And hear the pain of a black woman’s wails

As hate burrows through my flesh

With the strike of cat-o-nine tails

wuh-PSSSH!

wuh-PSSSH!

The Massa certainly knows his way around a plantation

He knows what every woman wants before she ever gives consent

A characteristic manifested over centuries,

And can now be heard in the phrase:

TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT!

My grandma was my Massa’s daddy’s plum,

He plucked and tasted her until Mama was born

But his only heir was a son

Now, the son terrorizes my Mama with verbal threats

And the heinous beatings of his brown-skinned nephew

The backside of my physique displays a horrific view

Of lashes of contempt,

Soiled and scrubbed with the malicious sting of

Pepper water

Massa want me to be the example

Show how easy it be to silence me

So he cut me…string me up…

Then stuff my mouth with my own privacy

Think of your words

Are they no more than a parlor trick?

Do they possess substance founded on your principles?

Or, are they just a blind recitation

Of someone else’s declaration?

wuh-PSSSH!

wuh-PSSSH!

We The People

Nuff Said,

MannofStat

Copyright © 2016 by Leroy Elwood Mann