Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
If 1619 started it—ebony/ivory—
teenage attraction
Jim Crow’s watch—upped the ante!
Deep South apartheid stench/Emmett
Till terror/Pitched battles on blood rivers…
What could the boy be but Black rapist?
Bullwhip warped minds of white men—
What could this be but ‘Master’s’
midnight visits to slave quarters—Prying
apart Black thighs—overruling cries, pleas,
Love?
What could the boy be but Black rapist?
Crackers coveted Choctaw land—
Black soil mattered…
More than visiting terror—or
Another muddy, mutilated body in Mississippi
or another Dixie river. Crackers coveting
Choctaw land put the boy in his plantation place…
Crackers coveting Choctaw land gifted 8 Angola yrs,
Under horseback-ridin, shot-gun-totin, tobacco-spittin
gaze; Under King Cotton’s rule; Gifted target embroidered
Jacket— Gifted exile to: City of Angels/ruled by devils…
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
His numbers are no longer:
“6-3-4-5-7-8-9”
no longer:
“Beechwood 4-5-7-8-9”
far too long his numbers been:
#A92051 #T115— 83—Caged since ’63—
60 yrs of vengeance-driven torture!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
Visualize him home—sun splashing light comic
book bright colors of L.A. murals!
Visualize him home, pulling three-deep lines snaked
‘round crooked corners…holding youth centers, senior
centers, libraries, bookstores captive.
Visualize him home—space, light, air, freedom to stretch
out in sensory overload!
Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone
too long…
Wanted in the Black Community—
Watts writ large!
No mo’ Golden State gulag/COVID
concentration camp—
No mo’ Octogenarian barrister behind bars
law book-lifting—iron-pumping mind:
No mo’ memoranda, motion, writ and plea
No mo’ heroic, litigious—War of the Flea—
No mo’ symbol of strength/wisdom of tree—
People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
Governor, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!
© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
C. Liegh McInnis is a poet, short story writer, and former instructor at Jackson State University.
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