One Knee
Poet: Ken Jordan
Poem: One Knee
Edited by: Sparkle Jordan
written: September 2017
One Knee
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Yes, I kneel down on one knee
damn right I do -
I will not honor an Anthem
of a country that don’t honor me -
<>
One Knee
I was a SLAVE when
President Thomas Jefferson,
(who owned hundreds of SLAVES)
wrote the Declaration Of
Independence -
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“We hold these truths to be
self evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty, and the
pursuit of Happiness.”
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One Knee
Through
the racist Founding Fathers of
a new Nation from George
Washington to Ulysses S. Grant
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One Knee
When Francis Scott Key,
was inspired to write:
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“O’er the land of the free
and the home of the brave.”
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However,
these are the lines we don’t
sing to the Anthem we praise -
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“No refuge could save the
hireling and slave, from the
terror of flight or the gloom
of the grave. And the star-
spangled banner in triumph
doth wave. O’er the land of
the free and the home of the
brave.”
<>
One Knee
<>
Yes
I was down on One Knee
long before SLAVE owner
Francis Scott Key, wrote
the National Anthem -
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He wasn’t honoring me, and
the 6 million enslaved blacks
in these United States -
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One Knee
through
the Atlantic Slave Trade
in 1619 -
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One Knee
On the Slave Ship Brookes,
across the Atlantic Sea -
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One Knee
Through the induction of the
American Flag in 1777
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One Knee
Through
The Slave Trade Act Of 1783
<>
One Knee
Through
Jamestown, Virginia., where I
was a slave, sold off to work the
Tobacco crops for the North
American Colonies -
<>
One Knee
Yes, I kneel down on One Knee
damn right I do -
I will not honor an Anthem
of a country that don’t honor me -
<>
One Knee
A slave I be, solidifying the
South’s economy when I invented
the Cotton Gin in 1793.
<>
One Knee
Through
The Louisiana Purchase in
1803
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One Knee
Through
The Westward expansion in
1840
<>
One Knee
Through
The Abolition movement
to set slaves free -
<>
One Knee
Yes, I kneel down on One Knee
damn right I do -
I will not honor an Anthem
of a country that don’t honor me -
<>
One Knee
Through the American Civil War
(1861-65)
<>
One Knee
Through the Unions victory over
the Confederate South -
4 million slaves freed from
bondage.
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One Knee
Through the tumultuous
Reconstruction years (1865-77)
I kneeled -
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One Knee
Through the Emancipation
Proclamation 1863
<>
“All slaves henceforth shall be
set free.” Abraham Lincoln
<>
He was assassinated over my
black skin -
<>
One Knee
<>
Through
The Montgomery Bus boycott, 1955
when Rosa Parks, refused to give up
her seat in the front of the bus -
One Knee
<>
Through the Civil Rights Movement
in the 1960’s -
<>
One Knee
Through
The Civil Rights Act 1964
The Voting Rights Act 1965
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One Knee
through the assassination of
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.,
“Drum Major Of Peace” 1968
<>
Yes
damn right I kneel down
on One Knee
<>
Though I respect “Old Glory,”
<>
I will not stand with my hand to
my chest, to honor a country that
discredit, dehumanize, demoralize, oppress through racial injustice and inequality.
<>
One Knee
Through
Police brutality;
who kill us, and not be held
accountable
<>
One Knee
Through
the ignorance of a U.S. President,
spouting derogatory words to
black mothers, and sons exercising
their Civil Rights -
<>
One Knee
Yes, I kneel down on one knee
damn right I do -
I will not honor an Anthem
of a country that don’t honor me -
Copyright (c)., Ken Jordan 2017
Copyright © Ken Jordan | Year Posted 2017
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