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three strikes, you're out and the |
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of the american institution of slavery do you think of history black history do you think of stories of slave ships bodies pressed together head to toe death and misery stories of long ago auction blocks flesh groped and pushed weighed in people renamed chained, beaten and confined and turned from human into commodity when you think of slavery do you think of then well then what should we call it now when men and women chained ankle to ankle wrist to wrist neck to waist are taken to a place where they are confined in quarters in blocks in cells strike one |
what do you call it when you take these sometimes chained and very confined people and then give them a new name be it toby or B253476 be it mammy or G714280 strike two what should we call it when these renamed confined chained humans these sons these fathers these mothers these daughters these brothers these sisters are told that they will never again be free and that they will have to work for the room they are locked in the clothes they are made to wear the food they eat and for you what should we call it when we know that the constitution's 13th amendment outlaws involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" strike three what should we call it if you asks me it sounds too much like a different brand of slavery -- devorah major |
devorah major is a poet living in San Francisco. She maintains a very worthwhile site, Online Cultural Koncepts. She was selected as San Francisco's Poet Laureate in 2002.