[New-Poetry] Poems by Years

[Anny Ballardini]

MARGARET WALKER

Since 1619

 

 

How many years since 1619 have I been singing Spirituals?

How long have I been praising God and shouting hallelujahs?

How long have I been hated and hating?

How long have I been living in hell for heaven?

 

When will I see my brother’s face wearing another color?

When will I be ready to die in a honest fight?

When will I be conscious of the struggle – nor to do or die?

When will these scales fall away from my eyes?

 

What will I say when days of wrath descend

When the money-gods take all my life away;

When the death knell sounds

And peace is a flag of far-flung blood and filth?

 

When will I understand the cheated and the cheaters;

Their paltry pittances and cold concessions to my pride?

When will I burst from my kennel an angry mongrel,

Lean and hungry and tired of my dry bones and years?

 

 

Notes:

Since 1619 – The year that the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, abroad a Dutch frigate

When will these scales fall away from my eyes? – The account of Saul’s conversion in Acts 9.18: “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized”.

 
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