culture Book ver final 5 - Flipbook - Page 105
Macon’s Black Culture: We’ve Come This Far by Faith
By Rena Canady Laster
"A past to cherish, a future to fulfill." I’ve read that these words are
inscribed on one of Macon's historic markers dedicated to preserving
the city's rich African American History.
So, imagine bodies being tossed into the sea - Dead!
Like bags of rotting potatoes, While the ships continued, Navigated
by our foes,
Taking our ancestors and their friends, to foreign lands they did not
know,
Filled with customs, and cultures they did not understand.
“Why are we stacked, On top of each other? No room to breathe!
Smelling each other’s waste! Smeared like paste! Young and old,
Our future and potentiality, Lost at sea!
Where are we going?”, I imagine the survivors said.
It’s what I say now, while many youths lie in bed. Unmotivated,
With their anger misdirected, Minds unfocused and unprotected.
Filled with what media sells; Convinced that it’s all about a shoe,
A ball and swagger, Aimed like a dagger at the unthinking, unsuspecting
mind.
Leaving scars, they can’t see, until they later discover
Who they could be - Or could have been.
My Macon culture:
Bright with hope, is reimagined. Having been built by faith upon the backs
of ancestors whose talents
We now freely birth and develop, Taking back our dignity
Because we refuse to have our minds tossed overboard into the sea of
mediocrity
Destined to die and end up in a graveyard of Wasted potentiality and
unfulfilled dreams.
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