This country –
Born with the word
“compromise” on its lips
The plosive of the p
Ending with that sibilant z
We learned it fast –
Three fifths to
Missouri to
Eighteen Fifty
It allowed everyone
To pretend and avert gaze
To peculiar institutions
To slave catchers after fugitives
To Dredd Scott not having standing
Because property can’t sue
The words on our lips
Made us blind to blood
On our hands from
the start through
Reconstruction and James Crow
And voting rights questioned
Laws abandoned as men,
Names soon forgotten,
Are shot in the street.
How can we forget our history
If we never bothered to learn?
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