Note: To read the ProPublica article that inspired this poem, click here. To hear Jonathan reading this poem, listen to today’s episode of Shake the Dust. “If the Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with a pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This poem is about bodies. Not bodies of water or bodies of work, but bodies covered by water, mud, brush, or dirt. Not unearthed by chance like when me and my little brother found bones looking for minnows by the creek, but on purpose as white men search for new ways to make money. Black bodies under barriers, brown bodies under borders, or out in bushes, backwoods or boondocks. Out of sight and out of mind until they interrupt or could be politicized or commodified. Like the bodies buried in Boydton, Virginia in Mecklenburg County. Black bodies found in what was the Moseley Family cemetery moved by Microsoft to make way for their new data center. Big tech deleted them like an unwanted search history, They emptied the caskets to make cash for caching our crap in the cloud. Thank you ProPublica and Seth Freed Wessler for seeing Mike and David Moseley, for remembering Stephen and his toddler son Fred, for exposing Alexis Jones and EnviroUtilities and Wayne Carter who found the remains of 37 Black people, packed their bones and belongings in plastic crates, and buried them in four graves where they wouldn’t bother Nadella and Gates—as they demonstrate what it looks like when Black lives don’t matter and you illustrate through your time and attention what it means when they actually do. This piece is called: "Bodies" People Names Habits Delights Thoughts Dreams Hopes Aspirations Ambitions Rituals Rhythms Songs Prayers Proverbs Poems All the beautiful and broken, messy and amazing of it – embodied life all bound up in dark, beautiful, collective skin Beheld, hated, taken, chained, labeled Renamed and shipped away Beautiful bodies in 1619 the Virginia company deemed Black bodies, commodities, and moved us for money Now another company in Virginia is moving us for money They crushed us for cotton and now our bones are in the way Highlight skulls and femurs and dirt, Control X and paste them in another place Black bodies at the bottom of the American way While everyone lives on top of us We’re supposed to know our place, stay and be grateful just forget from whom and where we came You know… We went in the water Ashanti and Igbo and came up Jonathan, Jennifer, and Toby Black people With White names and gray thoughts no bodies now Just Somebody’s now Like Jim’s hog or Massa’s cow We have Black habits Things Black people like Black dreams Black aspirations Black ambitions Black music Black magic Black songs Black Lives Black hopes We are Black folks And the stuff we touch, we taint And change its nature to Black Fascinating a whole neighborhood leaves because of one Black home Trying to live in a place where they once debated if we had souls A land that determined by vote we were Three-fifths not one whole Black Power bound up in brown skin Hemmed in by a false fence called race Black bodies forever bound to colonization our false history said to begin with slavery Black bodies on the bottom rung of white supremacy So now we carry this trauma wherever we go – In our bodies Oh how will we change this? What will we do? How will we cope? Will we make it through? They’ve moved our bodies and built the buildings We’ve seen and they’ve proven They will do whatever they want to. Ban our books, fire our teachers, burn our churches Lynch, maim, kill, shoot, doesn’t matter if there’s camera footage. Evidence be damned, it’s relocation without hesitation and with impunity Pluck us up and move us out Black bodies don’t belong in this community. So where do we go? Accept King’s invitation to go inside. My body might be chained but my mind has amnesty My spirit is immune and this Black soul is gonna dance in my community. First me with God; then me, myself, and I; and then me and mine Because this dark skin is filled with light And I refuse to hide. I bear witness to the one who made me, and the one who was sent. I am made in the image of God no matter what your book says. I am not who you say I am unless you agree with him. The God who made me, you, And everything, That is He is the one who holds it all together White people are just pretending. So say what you will, his voice is louder. I may be silent amidst your nonsense I am yielding to a different power And if you dare take me like you did Martin, Emmett, and Ahmaud Please know you can kill this body and move it wherever you like. But one day I’m gonna get up and answer the call from my master, Jesus Christ. I’m signing my own papers like MLK said I must I withdraw my deposit in this society Because whiteness is bankrupt I’m leaving this burning house, and I’ll be okay Just like Jesus we are only borrowing these graves.
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