Gator Bait

Political and Socially Conscious Free Verse Poetry

Black History Challenge
Poem #3

On my wall of pain
Are my plaques of shame
I am still
Too naïve to believe in change
So the pain remains despite
The blood stains I maintain
As the status quo allows
Injustice and inequality to
Continuous flow
As Negroes
And other minorities
Are forced to bow down
To Jim Crow
As the weight of being
Gator Bait
Luring the alligators of hate
From the swamps
Ensuring that we don't get
What we want or need
As we bleed beneath
The creed and false doctrine
Of democracy
That still serves to undermine
My kind as the crime of being
Black has numerous plaques
Hanging on the walls of
Injustice and inequality
Being displayed
Proudly
Right next to pics that depict
Blacks being lynched from trees
Is explicitly the cornerstone
Of democracy as the hypocrisy
Grows knowing that they
Don't want Negroes to be free
As complicity remains
Despite discrimination
Being illicit
It still elicits a response
Whether negative or positive
It is a fact that killing Blacks
Is still being practiced and
Remains in tact
As we forever have targets
On our backs
0200030002021NefariousJDorsey©

Author's Note

It is said that during slavery in Florida dark skinned babies were used as bait to lure alligators from the swamp so they could be killed thus the term " Gator Bait"

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

This makes me so angry....I want to use all those asses as bait for Piranha ---and watch the feast.
One part of this reminded me of a line in Mississippi Burning..."The only thing he did wrong was being black"---
We haven't come far enough since the Civil Rights Movement....there is still so much hatred. "illicit yet still elicits a response"---
Good stuff here, Rico...4th line it should be "Too naïve"---
Keep writing these...you need to be heard, understood and reckoned with...
j.

[Jerome F Knox III pseudonym Nefarious J. Dorsey]

it is always good to hear from my "virtual" mentor. Thanks the for the correction on the 4th line. I also thank you for your guidance and wisdom.