PICTURES OF HANGED BLACK MEN..

[boitumelo]

LET ME TAKE YOU BACK,ENVISION IN YOUR MIND.LONG AGO,SOUTHERN WOODS, IN THE DISTANCE,THE DEVIL AND HIS DEMONS,THEIR EVIL VOICES ECHOES..BY THE MOONLIGHT,UPON THE GROUND, A HANGED BLACK MAN'S SHADOW..DRUG GANGS,STREET GANGS, WOULD THEIR BLACK COMMUNITY VIOLENCE END/.IF THEY REALLY LOOKED AT PICTURES OF HANGED BLACK MEN/.THEY WOULD HANG ONE BLACK MAN, SOMETIMES TOGETHER 2 OR 3.NAKED BLACK MEN SWAYING BACK AND FORTH BY THE SOUTHERN NIGHT BREEZE.. STREET GANGS,.THEY COULD SPIRITUALLY TRAVEL BACK IN TIME UNDERSTANDING WHERE BLACK PEOPLE HAVE BEEN..IF THEY REALLY LOOKED AT PICTURES OF HANGED BLACK MEN....SOME BLACK MEN WERE BURNED ALIVE BEFORE THEY WERE HUNG.CELEBRATING,NO DOUBT,SONGS BY THE DEVIL, WERE SUNG...WOULD STREET GANG VIOLENCE END, AND BLACK UNITY BEGIN/. IF THEY REALLY LOOKED AT PICTURES OF HANGED BLACK MEN...

[Troy]

Let Me Take You Back,

Envision In Your Mind.

Long Ago, Southern Woods,

In The Distance, The Devil And His Demons,

Their Evil Voices Echoes.

By The Moonlight, Upon The Ground,

A Hanged Black Man's Shadow..

Drug Gangs, Street Gangs,

Would Their Black Community Violence End.

If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men.

They Would Hang One Black Man,

Sometimes Together 2 Or 3.

Naked Black Men Swaying Back And Forth

By The Southern Night Breeze..

Street Gangs,

They Could Spiritually Travel Back In Time

Understanding Where Black People Have Been..

If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men....

Some Black Men Were Burned Alive Before They Were Hung.

Celebrating, No Doubt, Songs By The Devil,

Were Sung...

Would Street Gang Violence End,

And Black Unity Begin.

If They Really Looked At Pictures Of Hanged Black Men...

[Michelle Tamiko Hardy]

Interesting how you put it.

[Anonymous]

wow. Boitumelo did u write this or this a re-print? I'm sharing this on fb and want to give proper credit to the author. I'll hunt around & see if I can find out. This is my first time reading it. Regardless, I love it.

[Cynique]

This poem is reminiscent of the haunting ballad that Billie Holiday made famous. It was entitled "Strange Fruit"; an allegory for black men hanging from trees.

[Troy]

Boitumelo is somewhat of an enigma. As far as I know Writegirl Boitumelo does not reply to posts.

I don't read the poet's board very much, but Cary once pointed out that there was something poetic about one of Boitumelo's contributions so I decided to check out this one out.

I thought the piece was worth reading but I also know the all-caps-text-dense-single-paragraph-post that is Boitumelo's style would probably cause folks to ignore the writing altogether. So I decided to reformat the piece (so any formatting problems were caused by me).

[Anonymous]

Troy I know what you mean...I wouldn't have read it had you not re-formatted it. The all caps hurts my eyes.

[Troy]

I used to ignore everything Boitumelo wrote, now I really appreciate the contributions :-)