Mlk Day (2016) Poem by Butch Decatoria

What preference did the shackled legs,
the whip gashed backs,
sister-child maid wife
what favorite tastes or memorable tune
did have
those seen as a lesser you?

Far African kingdoms without the murals
or architecture of mathematicians,
or the pomposities of golden circumstance,
no gilded marble halls or pillars
or streets of cold stones
no fashions for the sharp nosed
pallid under parasols
caricatures of indifferent beauty,

rather the abducted men from the other shore
have a realm as fine to witness
if not much more
cathedral ceilings of heavens
ever shifting in days and darkness,
diamonds not found in bloody muddy ground
as priceless and as pure
the wealth not considered but conditioned filth
the wilderness and otherness
abhorred,
the living landscape the abundant beasts
giants of profound creation
gentle and danger - not found but there
the expanse of hot suns' earthen bones
and further back beyond history
these mirages shimmering walls
of palaces that have wind and width of awe
for its halls...
What infant legs that ran with cheetahs
offend, the native cries along the chains
die with the weight of loss
not yet found - the kingdom of suns

the people removed of their crowns

made to hate and sold and laid to waste
ever the more thirsty then
in the wooden boon of ships
on oceans cannot drink.

What choice or gift of eloquent conquerors
allows another a life not lived?
And still... this kingdom that is the life
we all see
creates from shackles the blues
everything new, no matter how often
the iron grip of times they kill
or assassinate the truth

We can always choose to see
the palace walls of heavens' surrounding kingdom
made soul and food and love
and hip hop

When freedom is absolute
the preferences or favorites once missed
will be no more a hollow well
when life is as equal to theminds we share
and the times without fear

the lines will blur
because there is nothing more between us
to cross...


(we all are rich when we have choices
to be free is to raise our voices)