Share   Print  Save   Become a Fan

Deep in the south, 1920's, the KKK ruled in a lot of the towns--from the justice dept., the sheriff's, etc. When momma's grandparents (who were raising her) gave a black man dinner in exchange for chopping up a pile of wood, the KKK burned a cross on their yard that night--scaring mom half to death.
*********************

Rustlings, brisk, jumping with nightwings--
neutered, wings clipped, yet bristling with noise.
Nihility rules! It’s frightening--negritude--
the nights rider neighs, a robe flopping ‘round,
another nightmare risen up, reeling unbound.
Vengeance of intimidation, domineering whore!
Why splay allegiance on a charred cross
with oblique, angled head? Another soul . . . dead.

Spoiler, he who expostulates equality,
the nightwings find them expugnable, expunge.
Would they do so exsanguinely but no . . .
with power they exsiccate, nearly eradicate.
Obliteration gloriously anticipated
in obscure hoods masking eyes blinded by hate.
Eerie things ooze in the night, reverberate
reverently. Oblique hate triangulates quite . . . red.

Friendly, Momma saw nightwings hovering o’er her bed
but she would not yield the beliefs inside of her head