PAD Challenge Day 24: What If…?
PAD Challenge Day 24: Write a question poem.
What If…?
What if the shoe was on
the other foot
and Native Americans
invaded Europe
and colonized your country?
What if they assassinated
ninety
percent of your people?
Enslaved your kin
on your own homeland
made you face ethnic
cleansing
and called it Manifest
Destiny
What if they named a Chief
from
every tribe as your Founding
Fathers?
Would you feel Thankful
at Thanksgiving?
Would you feel
independent on
Independence Day?
Or full of mourning after
a Trial of Tears?
What if the tables were
turned
and African Descents formed
an
alliance with Native
Americans
Rowed boats like the White
Lion and
Clotila to the coast of Europe
Set up ports to kidnap
your
precious white men, women,
and children
Cramped and pinned their malnourished
and dehydrated bodies down
to foul floors
Humiliated your men
Raped your mothers and
children
back-to-back across the Atlantic
until settled in the New
World.
What if your white
mothers and
fathers were separated
from their children?
What if your family names
and
traditions were erased,
English swallowed and replaced
Skin beat down and marked
up just to
be oiled by lard and
placed on sale at auctions
What if the darker version
of your hue was
put against the lighter version of you?
What if you were a slave
under a constitution
that begin with “we the people”
next to
“secure the Blessings of
Liberty”?
What if you were dog-tired
from getting
beat and beat and beat again
to death because
you crave the emancipation
of freedom?
What if Jim Crow
disenfranchise your
life?
What if you were falsely
accused, imprisoned,
brutally shot or killed
by law enforcement
or lynched then set on fire?
What if your houses met burning
crosses?
What if the Black Panthers
dressed
like the KKK and terrorized
you,
stringed riots after
riots against your civil rights?
What if you were water
hosed down, spit on at diners,
and attacked by police
dogs?
What if your churches
were bombed,
and houses and businesses
set on fire?
What if you were denied employment,
equal opportunities, and admission
to HBCUs?
What if your whole culture
was
disrespected and turned
into a minstrel show?
What if your history was
excluded
from the history books?
What if your ancestors
were forgotten
discredited for their
contributions?
What if you fit the
description or was killed unarmed?
What if you were seen as inadequate?
What if your people were
still suffering,
generations after generations?
What if your people were still
weary about
tomorrow and the future of
their babies?
What if the grass was not
green
on the other side for you
in America?
D’ElegantOne
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'From Nothing Comes a Queen" Artist Romeo Clay Robinson Photo taken by Danielle Robinson From Houston, Texas viewing at Houston Museum of African American Culture |
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