Rosewood
Pre Scottsboro boys
Pre Emmett Till
Yeah, this stuff still happened
In those good ‘ole days
We were allowed to be blatant
Decimate a town, make ’em flee
Because we were Worthy savages
Unquestioned, unreported
White woman in all of her weakness
Cries rape by a black man
This time in a mixed town
In a 1923 mixed southern town
Justify not her —
White woman cry
But her commodification
Protect not her
But the right for her to be owned,
enslaved by us,
deserving, well-meaning White men
Justify and protect
Our red, white, and blue right
With massacre,
Destruction
Create living Hell
For those borne black
Lest black body, black mind, black voice
Forget their pre-1865 destiny
A circular Fate
You don’t belong
(As equals)
No, you don’t
She doesn’t either
No, she doesn’t
We own you both
That white woman cry burns through Rosewood
The cry is white, alabaster, god-loving, virginal,
and voiceless
Cry is the only way she learned voice
Worth, place, attention
But men didn’t cry
Don’t cry
But that cry burned through the city,
Luckily it did
Images of crimson
Spattered against alabaster canvas
Contrasted with more veracity
Than thick-hanging fruit
or blood on the leaves
No need to put that to trial
The rumor alone
Denied my rights,
Denied me
And maybe untrue
But truth and evidence
Never were the origins of
An American justice
Of my justice
Let us be the rapists
The killers
The History writers
The voices
So that you know your place
And my descendants
(And even you)
Think it's your fault
Born guilty, die young
Not one
But a one forgotten unreported
Displaced black community of Rosewood, Florida
To the victims of the January 1923 Rosewood massacre, in memoriam.
