Agnes B. Levine, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
ABSTRACT JORDAN by Agnes B. Levine
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Not rated by the Author.
EXPERIENCE ONE WOMAN'S SUPERNATURAL, SPELL-BOUNDING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING CONVERSATION ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER JORDAN.
The journey was a rough, tortuous, deceptive one and it ain’t over yet. There were admissions, confessions, reservations, good intentions, evil intentions, cheating, nay said, he said, she said, and very little of just the facts, please, about the unfaithful one from those concerned folks who had little of those facts when they compared little to the gossip and rumors about a slave man. Well-wishers who wanted and/or needed to protect the presumably naïve or innocent woman praising her God. Never mind, she told them she absolutely trusted her God. Believed in Him. Faith long and strong. No matter she would not break precious confidences or destroy valuable trusts. Folks were gonna write across the wall, the sidewalks, the street signs, everywhere. “Surely, she must be told and I choose you to bear the news.” “Shucks, she ain’t listening!” “Surly, she must be told, and I choose…let me see…you, to bear the news.” “Darnit, what is she stupid?” “Surely, she ain’t listening and I choose…try her this time, you bear the news.”
“Oh, Great-great grandma, if dey get him on dat sailin’ ship after dos’ nickels, I’s shall n’ver see him ‘gain dis lifetime. I’s sit here wit you waitin’, Great-great grandma. Waitin’ for dat love ta come back ta me, no matter how long it take. Cuz our journey be out of order steps, Great-great grandma. Jus like ya and Great-great grandaddy’s sorrow, dey be out of order steps.”
Lord, are we the most romantic story of all time? Must we give up our royal inheritance to please non-believers? As you say not, I must allow this man to gain his full confidence back as it gains me my full confidence back as a woman as you have already ordered. My place back in freedom. To this, I am obedient.
As what of my ancestors when my Great-great-granddaddy was snatched away from my Great-great-grandma and taken so many miles away? Never finding his first love again. Forced off God’s ordered steps? Word would no doubt get back to you, Great-great grandma, that he got another. He got ‘mo chilren.’ Another wife. “Did you cry? Did you yearn? Great-great grandma, did you forget about him with an attitude, hostility? Did Great-great granddaddy become lesser of a man with the second woman of his life and did that woman help him find his confidence as a slave? Did she ‘dis’ you Great-great grandma, for letting Great-great granddaddy so naively board that ship chasing after another man’s wealth?”
I sit at this Jordan River, needing you, Great-great grandma to tell me these things. Bridge our past to our modern struggles. The strong black career woman, handling her business and the struggles of the black man trying. The segment of black male America who is unfairly pinned down, held back versus the educated ones who make it on the playing field. The strong black woman wants the Wall Street black man and middle class, etc. I think about that black woman who grows impatient and divorces the black man who ain’t moving fast enough towards that end for whatever reason. His soul dies or is still. Hers too, she just don’t know. No matter the face they wear. That’s because they have been snatched away. So far away that strong black woman don’t know who she is any more. Nor him. She bolts for the door with their dreams and hers and possibly the kids, dog, and car. All the things she can justify as acquiring solely since he spent more time unemployed, if not under-employed. He drifts from gal to gurl to mama’s and back again.
“Great-great grandma would you really want Great-great granddaddy back today? He’d have no income, no health benefits, probably no legs due to sugar, a bullet hole, and bad kidneys. He’d have a prison record and no teeth. You’d still be strong as a rock up at the crack of dawn praising and worshipping “Gawd,” waiting on missionaries to bring you the month’s rations. Would you cry for me, Great-great granddaddy cause you got a peep of my future?
From the Caribbean Sea to Machu Picchu in Peru, and from birds to flowers and butterflies, Reflections and Treasured Wonders offers a collection of images gathered from around the world.
From the Caribbean Sea to Machu Picchu in Peru, and from birds to flowers and butterflies, Reflections and Treasured Wonders offers a collection of images gathered from around the world.
