I Choose Us: The African

Wherever we may be, when nightriders
thundering in the fog, shaking the village

I choose us

Corralled at the sea fort for the king’s pleasure
we sang our royal song of betrayal & defiance

I choose us

We many bodies, many tongues, many histories
in the dark feces-filled belly of far-reaching ships

I choose us

When we ignite the flames of the One, when heaven
revolts in wind & wave, we collapse in shipwreck

I choose us

We count the living & the dead on a captured isle
of mountains, marooned, we raid plantations to live

I choose us

Learning the Christian language & way, from slaves
in backwater Charleston, remembering warriors dead

I choose us

Speaking Chic-ca-saw & Cherokee—native blood, falling
singing its death chant, running in woods that never was

I choose us

Exodusters & Assembly on Liberty Island, ain’t yet free
we work, we be—strong arms decide who eats & lives

I choose us

From Southampton to the Superdome, they own us
drown us in blood, they do what they want with us

I choose us

Scattered like the grain in the winter air, blowing
I sing songs of war, dirges too, and love lost love

I choose us

When a people is dispossessed, eternally awol
corralled onto tiny urban islets of gloom & woe

I choose us

With dreams beyond sparkling jewels & gleaming
mansions, & block stretch limousines, righteous

I choose us