“Our duty is manifest,” Greg intoned, peering down through the bright lights and into the seats which were filled with members of Citizens Concerned for Children; this was yet another right wing group that he coveted.
He hoped to recruit them in his unrelenting quest to ban virtually all books from school libraries. The crowd shouted its approval. Greg smiled. He was happily in his element.
Greg, Governor of his state, held up his hands for quiet only halfheartedly; he adored adulation from the unwashed masses.
“Do you know what your children are reading?” he boomed out ominously. He held up a book–“Rubyfruit Jungle”– and the crowd booed on cue. In back of the room, Fox News filmed the address. Sean Hannity provided a running commentary.
Taking up the volume, Greg ripped it into two pieces, then cast it to the floor, where it landed with a loud splat, which echoed throughout the huge hall.
The audience went “ooh,” at the Governor’s display of outrage and pure physical strength.
“Here’s another one we don’t need,” he declared, holding up “Beloved,” to the hisses and catcalls from those assembled.
Clutching the book over his head, he ripped the book in two. The cloud politely applauded, duly impressed.
Unknown to the audience, Greg had had the books’ spines broken prior to the meeting.
He said, “We want to get rid of “The Bluest Eye” and “A Catcher in the Rye” and “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Hate U Give,” and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
With each successive declaration the crowd’s excitement grew.
“Do you know what the presence of these books in the library leads to?” he asked.
Someone shouted out, ” Black Lives Matters!” Another yelled, “Critical Race Theory!” Greg nodded somberly in agreement with each shouted statement. “It means,” he said gravely, “godlessness!”
The crowd was in a frenzy now, excited almost beyond even Greg’s expectations. “Are you with me, then?” he demanded.
“Yes!” shouted the audience and four hundred fists were thrust righteously into the air.
“All right then,” said the Governor, cuing a queue of young men who fanned out across the room. “I’m going to ask you good folks for a love offering, These funds will be used to finance the campaigns of candidates who agree with you, that these godless books should be removed from our libraries. Please give generously.
As the boys avidly gleaned the riches from the assemblage, Greg appeared to grow thoughtful, leaned into the mic and said, “And tomorrow, we’ll talk about restoring prayer to our classrooms. We’ve got a Constitution to safeguard, people!”
Bubbles
I see through bubbles that are blown everywhere.
Some are protestations of undying love,
others, a screen
between the public and their leaders.
Some journey towards afflicted regions,
but burst before they reach their destinations.
Some are a kaleidoscope
of a happy childhood,
which is no longer available.
Some evoke an ocean
that is now at enmity
with its immediate neighbors.
Some are a display of historic arrogance
that will be the plight
of every nation.
Some are at variance
with their own ingredients,
so turn against themselves
in a hysteric self-annihilation.
Some perform the Danse Macabre
and foretell the transience of the human species.
An Eye Contact
Two hours after midnight,
a pair of fluttering stars
that steadily looks me in the eye,
shortsighted as I am,
has finally established an eye contact.
The thread of light that now ties
my irises to their flickering white
is my daily exit from Hades.
I do not need to climb a ladder to reach the skies
or to fly an extraterrestrial spacecraft,
I mount my own eyesight.
I was born into so many wars
I was born into so many wars, I pause
with shortness of breath
that has nothing to do with respiratory throes,
but with Fear
that was injected into my system
during my earliest years.
I was only four when the 1967-war
violently shook my cardiac chords.
Lightning and thunder became a metaphor
for the fireworks
of Israeli bombardments of land and ports.
Then came the 1973-raids
on the harbor which was only yards away
from our street which filled with tanks,
military trucks,
and soldiers with helmets.
Shell-shocked, I was launched into my teens.
Before I became eighteen,
a civil war bequeathed numerous assassinations
and odd forms of sectarianisms.
2011 was the ominous date,
heralding rockets,
displacement,
and an everlasting siege
that brought inflation and darkness in its wake.
And now I am sixty years of age.
I find myself in the grip of a War
that has shattered my dreams
of a long-lasting peace.
The Massacre of Penguin Chicks
I was in Sydney in the early nineteen-nineties
when I first heard of people who endanger their lives,
clinging to the masts of massive ships,
to hinder the pollution of soil, air, and seas.
Those activists are trouble-makers
in the eyes of legislators,
merely for attempting to save our planet
and its endangered species.
With my TV screen recently gone out,
having been electrocuted by a surcharge of electricity,
I now read the news instead of watching it,
which spares me a lot of psychological harm
and lingering grief.
These recent events sound apocalyptic
but not Biblical to me;
however, our globe is being destroyed
with Luciferian zeal.
Emperor penguin chicks are the latest martyrs.
In thousands, they have drowned
or frozen to death
because the sea-ice melted beneath them
before they could develop the waterproof feathers
which would enable them to swim.
The executioner is global warming.
Millions of people have been dying in stoppable wars
and nobody gives a damn,
so who would care about the demise of penguin chicks?
I once heard a conspiracy theorist speak of preparations,
to inhabit another space,
once planet earth has ceased to exist.
Such a flight to a new paradise must cost billions,
but should I get it free -
please excuse such a daydream -
I would not want to board one of their spaceships,
because the journey would nauseate me.
I would rather perish here.
[Excerpt from Fleury’s book: Chain Letter To America: The One Thing You Can Do To End Racism: A Collection of Essays, Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Multiculturalism]
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A 2006 article by Mema Ayi and Demetrius Patterson from the Chicago Defender reported that “actor Morgan Freeman created a small firestorm…when he told Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” that he finds Black History Month (BHM) ridiculous.” Freeman goes on to say that “Americans perpetrate racism by relegating Black history to just one month when Black history is American history.”
I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that as Americans we are tied together “…in an inescapable network of mutuality…Whatever affects one [of us]…affects [all of us] as Americans in this country.
As you can clearly see, the month of February dedicated to Black history continues to stir controversy. However, we can’t continue to ignore the fact that although we have made progress towards racial unity, we still have ways to go towards racial harmony, understanding and tolerance, if not acceptance.
Scholars and historians such as Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, agree that Black Americans still need February, and every day, to reflect on the accomplishments of Black Americans who contributed countless inventions and innovations to society.
Radio personality Cliff Kelley notes that capricious historians conveniently leave out certain parts of the story that do not corroborate their version of history, which consists mostly of White men. Blacks are virtually removed from the narrative to substantiate the White historical agenda. Plenty of Black youths do not know their history. Most of them think that their history begins and ends with slavery.
Former State Representative David Miller (D-Calamut City, Ill) asserted that Freeman was right in saying that Black history should be a year round thing. “We’ve shaped America,” he said, “but that Black History Month should serve as a reminder of our legacy.”
The recently deceased Howard Zinn wrote in his book A People’s History of the United States, “There is not a country in world history in which racism has been more important than the United States.” He poses the question, “Is it possible for Blacks and Whites to live together without hatred?”
When it comes to the evolution of racism, he had this to say: “…slavery developed into a regular institution of the normal labor relations between Blacks and Whites in the New World. With it developed that special racial feeling — whether hatred or contempt or pity or patronization — that accompanied the inferior position of Blacks in America…that combination of inferior status and derogatory thought we call racism.”
He goes on to say, “The point is the elements of this web are historical, not ‘natural.’ This does not mean that they are easily disentangled or dismantled. It only means that there is a possibility for something else, under historical conditions not yet realized.”
In a 2010 article in The Boston Phoenix, “Is There Hope in Hollywood?” Peter Keough extrapolates the medium of film is making an effort to bridge the race gap. They do this by portraying Blacks as heads of state — in movies like Transformers 2, 2012 and Invictus — although the contexts in which a Black man becomes president is often created by a catastrophe in which the White leader is killed. Or Blacks are still being portrayed in glaring stereotypical roles such as in Precious, with racist clichés like Precious stealing and eating an entire box of fried chicken.
The undercurrent of racism is evident even from well-meaning Whites like President Biden, when he ran against Obama for president. Biden declared that “[Obama] is the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean, and a nice looking guy.” Similarly, another fellow Democrat, the former Senate majority leader Harry Reid wrote in his book Game Change, about Obama that America is ready for a Black president, particularly because he is “light skinned and speaks with no Negro dialect.”
This leads me to extrapolate that despite all that Blacks have contributed to the making of America, this becomes extraneous compared to the first impression our colorful appearance makes. I am compelled to recall what Dr. King, Jr. so eloquently stated, that Black people should be judged “by the contents of their character” and not their skin color.
Many modern conveniences spring from the inventions of Black inventors: blood banks facilitating life-saving transfusions, the bicycle, the electric trolley, the dustpan, comb, brush, clothes dryer, walkers, lawn mower, IBM computers, gas masks, traffic signals, the pen, peanut butter…The list goes on and on.
Thanks to the Academy Award nominated film, Hidden Figures, we’re now all familiar with the amazing contributions of mathematical geniuses Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, whose work helped make Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon! All of these achievements have become part of our daily lives here in America and around the world as the result of African-American contributions to the economic and scientific stronghold known as America.
Sadly, we still need Black History Month to remind us!
Jacques Fleury
Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian-American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc…He has been published in prestigious publications such as Muddy River Poetry Review, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him here.
LIFE AND DEATH IN ALABAMA
A fertilized egg is a treasure,
a boon to the barren, a gift of hope.
But in sweet home Alabama,
the latest law gives embryos a bonus:
eternal life.
A judge decreed an egg fused with a sperm
is now a U.S. citizen, with rights.
If kept quick-frozen, zygotes live forever.
Sperm donors will pass on.
Parents will pass on.
But grandchildren, great-grandchildren
must keep potential ancestors in liquid nitrogen
forever and ever. Amen.
Any careless spills or thaws are murder.
Any cells lost in the implant process-- serial murder.
And murder is a capital offense.
These microscopic cells don’t look like people.
No face, no bones, no blood, no lungs;
no organs, tissues, gender.
But one dogmatic judge decreed
these cells are fully human.
That’s what his Church believes.
Our founders erred-- Church ought to rule the State!
His Church, of course.
Living children aren’t the law’s concern.
In Alabama, school-aged kids
can work in factories— child labor. Cheap.
Children of asylum-seekers?
Routinely ripped from parents’ arms
and locked in cages.
Children of the poor are grudged food stamps,
must fight red tape for every scrap of health care.
And every day more kids are shot and killed.
No, real youngsters aren’t priorities.
But embryos—now there’s a righteous cause!
Eden’s tree, that bore enticing fruit,
has sprouted in the courtroom, promising
knowledge of good and evil.
Alabama’s judge has tasted insight;
his laws prevent Eve’s needy daughters
from seeking IVF—lest cells be wasted.
Decrees deny a babe in arms to parents
out of respect for life.
He reads God’s mind, this Alabama judge.
Or speaks, perhaps, for someone else
that lurks in Eden, hissing…
Copyright 2/24 Patricia Doyne
