Beautiful black nurturing Mother,

Throughout history there is no other,

Who has led her people any further,

Or endure the pain you suffer

 

Several centuries of this unnecessary pain

Watching your Men and Boys as they swing

Asking God why your loved ones must hang,

Could other women bear this bloodstain?

 

When our dignity with our freedom flew,

It was your courage and strength that seen us through

Your persevered our trials and tribulations too,

My beautiful black nurturing Mother, yes I mean you

 

Do I have to be an angry black male,

Just because some of these words I may yell

As I relate this historically accurate tale,

Of a time when humans were for sale

 

When tears of blood ran thick,

From the many lashes of an angry whip

Is it any wonder that life begins to slip,

With broke bones, black eyes and torn lips

 

Is it possible our Great Nations’ forefathers,

Passed us around from one to the other

Tortured and murdered our many brothers,

Enslaved, robbed and raped our defenseless Mothers

 

That was long ago why should we care,

Surely you know life is never fair

Besides that old drumbeats beginning to wear,

So please don’t even go there

 

Why should you worry today,

Of course that’s very easy to say

When it wasn’t your people who had to pay,

Not your blood that stained the clay

 

It’s so easy to assume we know,

The depths of another human soul

While our ill-informed misconceptions grow,

We promote racism with the seeds we sow

 

History has proven time and again,

In the hearts and minds of men

When it comes to evil there is no end,

From this there’s only one way to win

 

From our society we cannot erase,

The brutal history we must embrace

With open minds and ancestral grace,

To avoid a return of the past we still face

 

Author’s Note: Written in memory of Ms. Vi Fair, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who endured our modern day form of occupational enslavement in order to provide for her family. All the while drawing upon the same strength her female ancestors possessed, as the epitome of the “Beautiful Black Nurturing Mother.” She was a colleague and mentor.