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.poem
CloseImageViewView image “Draft, A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKS”Draft, A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKSUploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsmilitarywarsurvivalmemorylawtraumapoem
CloseImageViewView image “A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKS”A BLACK MILITANT POEM SPEAKSUploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsmilitarywarsurvivalmemorylawtraumapoem
![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/1/2/d/12d187c9-ddb7-4b80-81c7-d912033958f0/attachment/e55e15f9d83bb567633652f3cec5e23d.jpg)
