FLASHBACK FRIDAYS 10 years ago in 2004, I was a live performing poet with the Baltimore ensemble of young poets, calling ourselves Strange Fruit. We published our first anthology called Bittersweet. In it, I wrote a poetic response to Billie Holidays macabre song Strange Fruit from which we were named. It ended up leading the anthology as the first poem. I would perform it under my pen name, Ramses Westbrook-Scott in full tuxedo with Eye of Ra, which I had adopted as a symbol drawn over my left eye. FRUITS OF REDEMPTION A king of kings, Lord of the Mandingos, Heir of Mansa Musas power and regality, stripped of his robes stripped of his humanity by the darkside of man, darker than his hide. No more an earthly divinity, but a ravaged carcass memory strung from the limbs of a poplar tree. His drastic demise is welcomed with glee smiles and cheers and merry jigs. Southern Magnolias splattered with blood as red as the sin that put it there as red as the hate that drove the act as red as the passionate degree of that hate. He is left a lone martyr of might a solitary fruit with the flavor of fear which grows and ripens and plunges to the earth from where it hung a ghastly reminder. But as we all know, a fruit must fall and rot to plant its roots and rise again. Roots of independence, roots of pride and dignity planted by Freddy D, Booker T., W.E.B., and Dr. ML King as the Black Sons of Liberty. Stirrings of growth erect the prodigious form of the mighty Oak Tree in defiance of all odds in favor its oppression. The mother of promise, the mother of strength and unmatched resolve, and the mother of bubbling numbers of these Fruits of Redemption. Diverse in color, diverse in flavor, we are the fruits of this loom warriors against the Negros gloom who declare in just our being, the resurrection of our king. -Ramses Westbrook-Scott
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 19:59:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015