Best Auction Block Poems

Within the frame a sepia scene
a dusty porch   a rickety chair   
the fabric of your dusky face creased
with ceaseless sunbaked woes
your old pair of getaway feet gives 
a different walk of life 
to an old pair of thrown-away shoes
two sizes too...

Continue reading...

When the auctioneer first shows it,
I feel a sudden piercing shock.
My grandma's hand-sewn antique quilt
Is on the auction block.
It is the lovely basket pattern
And her stitches are so neat,
It must have taken tedious hours 
For my grandma to complete.

I have taken such good care of...

Continue reading...

This whip is a relic of war
an instrument of severe education, 
come now Avia, look how lovely and vulgar,
it is essential for you to appreciate it's intention,
feel it's supple weight, the simple fright,
I use jasmine oil to keep it alive with impact
is it not the...

Continue reading...

Planned Parenthood’s Diabolical Money Maker!!!

The most heinous crime that has been demonically inspired
surely came from Hell below; 
tearing an unborn helpless baby from inside his mother’s womb
and just when you think this country couldn’t sink – no! Not that low!!!

The pain these babies must go...

Continue reading...

Lend me a listen
And hear this tale of woe
The life and times 
Of a man 'called' Joe

Keep still, keep quiet
Hush, listen to the sound
The silent footsteps of a man
As he walks his native ground

Joe was born long, long ago
Across the waters blue
In a land of...

Continue reading...

just because you see me walking down 'ho boulevard does not mean i'm for sale...
i don't have an advertising sign up inviting you to taste and see
a woman can't walk down the street in broad daylight
dressed in a baggy t-shirt and sweats 
rockin' an afro...

Continue reading...

She flinches, shudders as chains tug at her flesh 
The ruthless slave trader and rapist whispers to the auctioneer
And instinctively she knows that it is her turn to be sold.
The noise heightens, her eyes focus on a kind face in the crowd.  
A well...

Continue reading...

(Apropos of Hughes’s Proverbial Question)

What happens when rotten strange fruit…
Hanging from trees of auction block wood
Become stinking pieces of black flesh…dried blood
Putrefying in murderous streets…?

When crystallized tears of remorse…Laden and loaded
With explosive grief…flow down weary faces
Wrinkled by time’s trials, tribulations…treacherousness—
And neglect of freedom, justice and...

Continue reading...

The auction began ------------
Black, bronze, yellow and other girls were there,
Only the most lovely and fair.
They were brought in from everywhere.
Shackled, 
They formed a human chain.
Baffled,
Their eyes revealed their despair,
And tears their pain.
Mothers separated from daughters,
Their screams of protest were a waste.
They could only watch,
The...

Continue reading...

A tradition rooted in the pain of African chains,
On the auction block, where slaves experienced the insane.
Separated...the strong from the weak...the young from the old,
So that by "The Dozen" these cheap laborers could be sold.
Amongst slaves, this distinction was viewed as a "low blow,"
But was...

Continue reading...

I lay my head down to sleep to the calm and peaceful sound of music flowing through the thick trees cruising from the subdivision below my dwelling.The rhythmic sounds of crickets and frogs composed a beautiful sympony and spawned  a strange unfamiliar song that...

Continue reading...

I’m the son of a slave,
living in ancient Greece of modern day
I was born in a city-state:
Detroit, South Carolina
Iron oar delivery
through the transactional Middle Passage way

That’s how I came to be
living on Titanic land

Daddy said we were shipwrecked,
but then got skin deed rescued by a...

Continue reading...

SLIDING FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP
   (APROPOS MLK: 3)

Lingering in the spaces of time, standing
On the muddy banks of reality, wandering souls
Chase the dream of Moses: the gleamed glory
From the mountain top veiled by the inept web
Of deceptive policies of the word-weavers . 

Dew-clawed...

Continue reading...

This train is coming down the main
This train is rocking my brain
This train is the overcrowded train
This train is washing in the rain
This train is the messy train
This train is filled with pain 
This train is labeled with all blame
This train is whispering my name
This...

Continue reading...

On Vacation With Middle Passage Memories

Out over the alluring expanse 
of the Big Water---
where the sky rest upon
the water’s edge---
where undulating ships wait
to fall off the earth---
we saw the lightening
dancing in space
and heard the applause
of the thunder.

Huge nimbus clouds,
dark like the early night,
and filled beyond...

Continue reading...