THE RAGE WITHIN

The rage within of her ebony kin
Unwilling immigrants to a new world
For three hundred and seventy years they toiled and died.
Emaciated, wretched beings,
Descendants of African kings and queens.
Descendants of humanity and dignity.
Bred on southern plantations,
Auctioned like chattel, shackled like animals.
Men flogged, women raped.
Enslaved from sun-up to sun-down
From colonial to modern times
Many of African decent seethe within
Like walking volcanoes pent up with lava
Just waiting to burst forth.
The rage within, camouflaged by sitcoms,
Compressed by law and order,
Numbed by drugs, sex, lawlessness, and materialism
The rage within,
Breeding hypertension and cancer, despondency and despair.
From rejection in an European world,
Often subjected to demeaning jobs.
Sometimes living in dilapidated homes.
Always working, but oftimes never enjoying life.
The rage within, quelled seemingly only by death.