Memory and Memories of a Marginalized People

Memory

I wonder how you work

Memory

Do you just smirk

At people like me

Who find you most interesting can we agree

How much of you

Is mine to own

Or what

Is about seeds they’ve sown

To what degree

Am I free

To say that you

Are bigger than me

In the faceless crowd

I see each week

Do I remember

That which I seek

Or is it simply remembering to remember

Those voices

That I hear inside

Do they come from me

Or on the winds do ride

I hear them say

Again this day

What I think I heard

Or have I been stirred

And my mind blurred

And still I am

Shaped by those voices

And those spoken words

“My blood is on this land

Farming is in my DNA

When will this all be over

The law may be color blind

But people aren’t

On three separate occasions

Finagled their way out

There’s money in here

But there’s none in here

For you all”

Yes

Those voices

That I hear inside

Do they come from me

Or on the winds do ride

I think you know