CloseImageViewView image “Breakaway Haiku For Midwestern Boys:”Breakaway Haiku For Midwestern Boys:Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsraceamericamemorynaturepoem
CloseImageViewView image “DEADLY JAMES (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)”DEADLY JAMES (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagspolice brutality. civil service sentineldeadly jamestraumalovewatercross-atlanticmemorylawjames jr.
CloseImageViewView image “Draft, A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKS”Draft, A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKSUploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsmilitarywarsurvivalmemorylawtrauma
CloseImageViewView image “DEADLY JAMES (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)”DEADLY JAMES (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagspolice brutality. civil service sentineldeadly jamestraumalovewatercross-atlanticmemorylawjames jr.
CloseImageViewView image “A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKS”A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKSUploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsmilitarywarsurvivalmemorylawtrauma
![Poem begun at Le Barry, 1 Aug. 1985, 11:20 a.m.—12:37; 4:40 p.m.—5:05
A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKS
by J. A. Emanuel
I was born militant,
screamed
when the world first [*leave 5 spaces*] touched me,
slapped me into life.
Measles, mumps, and scarlet fever
dug [was like trenches to my bedroom door,]
foxholes near my schoolyard,
[tried an tough tested me at fighting back,]
[blood tested
[while words my father hated]
[toughened my hands]
[to the schoolyard,] to my inkwell,
[sank] dragged me home
to [for] test[s at] my fighting back.
Retilo Remos taught me how to [swear curse
like Mexicans pushed [who had to live] in boxcars homes [across the] across [beyond] the railroad tracks,
while words my father always hated
[toughened my hands, like cracked marbles toughening gripped] toughened my hands
like the grip of cracked marbles.](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/3/0/b/30bbc15c-2790-434e-bd8c-1e2755707614/attachment/7a6711ded94ed9322a4b9d66f6f91496.jpg)
