The Black Side of You:
The White Man’s dance of
Southern Death:
Improvisation 02 27 2011
Original [06 05 1811] 02 26 2011
(For Black History Month,2011)
Two hundred rebellious slaves
Freed themselves and formed
A company of soldiers –half on
Foot and half on horseback they
Set off attacking white former
Plantation slave holders north
To the south of Carolina coast
They moved in orderly stealth
Bearing well assumed -rarely
Observed in more accomplished
Units of conscripted European
Armies experienced in killing
They fought with military precision
Overcoming small groups of twenty
To thirty well armed White settlers
Along the way –leaving the dead
In swamps where once they had
Fled searching other fruits of freedom
Now marching from each encounter
They had success enough to grow
And carry on attacks in greater
Strength -stronger than Fleeing
From lashes and rapes that left
Black bodies bleeding and the
Flesh opened to accounted pain
In the numbering of their members
There rode and walked -a few of
Them –the quadroon there among
Us to celebrate though they could
Not dance the Mo-Town dance
For fathers left in the swamps
Among many of them was theirs
So they danced in ways that
Rhythm obeys –the white
Man’s dance of southern death.
Lee Mack copyright 2009. ISBN # 0615318347. Do not reproduce without permissions.
The Black Side of You:
The White Man’s dance of
Southern Death:
(For Black History Month 2011)
Original 02 26 2011
By Lee Mack
Lee B. Mack
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-black-side-of-you-white-man-s-dance-original-02-26-2011/
