Shirley Sherrod Blues

Shall I be silent while around me roars Agony older than the night's darkness Where wrath against innocency pours Hunted only for God's milk of blackness Listen to the baying fox, untethered hate From primal jaws foaming: the hot chase To villify, demonize, denounce, denigrate And eradicate the ***** from honor's place Shall be silent against this new madness This churning xenophobic pyre of acid lies This new Titanic of wasp loving happiness Unclouding the old Babel at brim of skies? Give me neither heart nor tongue if I stay And quiver before the garrot of my race Give me neither space nor legs to run away From the incense in my blood for this place I shall not let them lynch her alone, I will Not allow their ancient demon to rise alone And make new hells for us while I am still The panther that dusky nights here enthrone. The lynching ends and no boot licking clan Or President will make the victim guilty feel No apologies restore life to a quartered man We are the intent of the new xenophobic zeal. Remember her then, remember Shirley Sherrod Remember her, my mother's daughter, my blood For though your scorn leaps like lightning's rod Be careful of the water, but wary of the flood. I shall not be silent, nor shall I groan in pain And tumble with the clanking chain. Mark this My numbers now, and think fore you dare disdain Our reasonable right to be and to co-exist.