We're All Connected

This is an ekphrastic poem I wrote as inspired by the artwork At Home and Abroad by Whitfield Lovell

 

 

Posed...As a family would for a portrait.

Cigars...As those about to get shot by a firing squad might have their last cigarette.

 

One...Knows no fear.

One...Fears making the slightest move.

One...Is contemplating the timing, the window of opportunity...

for a massacre of the oppressor, and an escape against all odds.

 

He’s been a target...At Home and Abroad.

He’ll fall for no tricks...No longer.

He has a few of his own tricks now, beneath his hat...Those armed with shotguns

and cameras are missing.

 

France will applaud them...Because there, no gender or racial bias will diminish the hell they raised against those unworthy of redemption.

They could make it their home there...but you know...

Somehow

Where we have ate

Where we have slept

Where we have breathed most of our air

Is our Home...

Even if the most basic of human rights haven’t been afforded to us there.

 

So, how can we leave home behind?

We do what we have to do.

We hope our deeds will change the mindset of the people...

Change how we are viewed...

Change history.

 

We try to dodge the bullets...

But if we’re hung out like strange fruits we have nothing left but hope.

Hope that our perseverance against all odds will nourish a nation

and turn a tide.

 

It’s the fabric of our existence.

It’s the nails in the cross.

It’s the raft set out to sea with our body lost

to be burned with a proper burial...

In hope of a better afterlife.

Hope of a God who sees no color...

 

We’re all just bones, after all. 

Reviews

[weholditdown]

"They could make it their home there...but you know...
Somehow
Where we have ate
Where we have slept
Where we have breathed most of our air
Is our Home..."

There seems to be a huge amount of truth in the above lines and they really stood out to me as a result. I liked the Billie Holiday reference with "hung out like strange fruits" too. It really ties in nicely with the themes of the poem and its message.

I really liked this poem. You created something thought-provoking from an equally thought-provoking picture.

[Colette]

Thanks so much for "holdin it down"! seriously...I don't think the people who read this poem for the ekphrastic poetry contest I entered it in even remotely understood any of the references I made. *tisk *tisk not because mine didn't win, but because people are sorely ignorant of our history. I genuinely appreciate your time in both reading and reviewing this one!

[Everett DeValle]

Thought provoking poem, Coco. Like.