Thoughts While Driving
I went for a drive along the winding
country roads of Virginia today.
I was surprised at what I saw.
The ghosts of American heroes
lingered everywhere I went.
Underneath a bright blue sky
I saw slaves working the fields.
Dust caught in a slight breeze
rose up from the parched earth
and flew almost gracefully
above them.
Dressed in rags
hands calloused
the sun had turned
their dark brown backs
closer to a light shade of black.
In their eyes I could see pain
I could feel the anguish in their
forced tired movements
as their taskmasters screamed at them
but beneath all that
plain to see
a sense of hope rested
in the arms of the unbreakable
tenacity of their spirit.
I looked away from them
averting my eyes back to the winding road for a second
And when I looked back they were gone
the screams of the taskmasters were replaced by
the loud roar of a big green tractor.
Before the road banked to the right
into the woods
and away from the cotton field
I caught a glimpse of the guy
in the air conditioned cab
of the John Deere singing along to the radio
and beyond that
for just an instant
In the shade where the
field ended and the forest began
I saw a little black boy
dressed in his rags
peering back at me
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