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

'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