Pepper Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
I searched those streets where you lived
Looking for kernels of inspiration
For elements of human transformation
And found towering remnants
Caught in the web of time
Some broken, twisted, stacked
And restacked like bricks
Still unwavering
Stars and Stripes and Southern Pride
Sweltering in the heat
Of well-kept summer side-walks
Where once powerful men and women
Soft with the lull of southern speech
And hardened by songs sung
In fields of the Tobacco King
Stood strong, Arms linked
In the carving of American history
Now lie silent in the decay of buildings,
in stone sculptures
in designated placards
Of Sit-In Victories
I searched to find your voice
Imprinting the human struggle
In shuffling spaces Shifting spaces
In the Winston-Salem bus terminal
Under the shadow of history
Sketched in the plate-glass window
And found lilting voices and flashing smiles
Of grandmothers squeezing together
Laughing about blueberries and store sales
And a new born grandchild
Dark like the daddy
And pretty like the momma
Was gonna be a big girl
In a shifting world,
And don’t you wanna see her picture though?
Brick by brick.
July 9, 2014
hinarising 