Birth Of A God. (Poetry).

BIRTH OF A GOD

James E. Cherry

On 125th St, the corner
of jazz and poetry, ancestral
drums have been stolen, while
progenitors of a Renaissance
buy Kente cloth from Koreans.
in South Central LA,
where red and blue seeds
of allegiance are planted,
young Black fruit withers and
dies on the vine.
On the South Side of Chicago in
high rise reservations, native
sons shoot broken arrows
and do war dances for no one.
Across the tracks and into
my childhood sits an East
Jackson neighborhood abandoned
to neglect, indifference and
white supremacy.

A Child is Born.

On a December starry night
a Black woman gives birth to a
child, a male child, gives another
Black child to the cold waiting
arms of hypocrisy and hate, to
enslavement, sharecropping, lynching,
police burtality, unemployment, poor
housing, mis-education, the republican right,
gives another Black child to
life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.

A Child is Born.

Conceived in the mind of God,
brought froth through the labor
pains of loneliness, given life through
the shedding of blood in the caves
of America (remember you're just three-
fifths a human. There's no room at the inn)
wrapped in blankets of love, growing
strong from mother's milk and
the Grace and Mercy of the Almighty.

A Child is Born.

To carry his cross to the
place of the skull, to be
the conscience of America,
to be the soul of the world, to
be a light showing the path
to righteousness, to justice,
to mercy, to truth, to
          God.

Redemption is only a reflection in the mirror.

James E. Cherry is a published author of poetry and fiction from Jackson, Tennessee. His work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Obsidian 11, Drum Voices Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Xavier Review, The Griot, Wolf Head Quarterly, and Beyond the Frontier.