There Was A Time
by Find Out More Taz / March 10, 2011 at 5:15 pm / Portfolio / no responses
Old age has slowed your steps,
Your balance is bad. Hands shake.
Your eyes? Life is a haze
Ears strain to hear what’s said.
People pass you daily.
Few acknowledge you.
Youth point fingers and tease
at your inability to keep up.
But if they only knew
There was a time
when eyes could not look eye to eye
Passively feet shuffled
heads bowed
“Yes ma’am.”
“No sir.”
fell humbly from lips.
Jobs–back breaking labor for crops and pennies.
You rode in the rear
Entered from the rear
Sat in the rear
Days of water hoses and snarling dogs.
nights loomed with fear
as you lay in bed and
listen to
the night riders drag another
registration seeker
counter sitter
protester and
marcher
to the hanging tree
to teach all a lesson.
There was a time
life was slurs and threats
Freedom was only a word
Reading and writing was a dream.
You see,
some have survived.
So youth,
Let the old walk slow, with
Pride and dignity
For if they didn’t live that life of Hell
we would never know
there was a time.
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