Juneteenth, a day to remember
and remind folks slavery ended,
but the violence remains intact.

Some things never seem to go away.
When your name is Chauvin,
you feel you must embrace your destiny,
live out the dreams of ancestors.

It becomes a time when
the death of souls
parallels the time when
Black, Brown, Red, Yellow peoples
mean as little then as now.

The collective value for our lives
continues to spiral downward.
Quiet as it’s kept,
the collective value out here is the same
for those who still embrace the old times,
Those who still believe there was no emancipation.

But we know what we know.
We are a people who will not be stopped.
We are the ones who will remind you
that justice will appear and haunt you
at the least expected times! like now!

 

Janet Cormier’s first column for Oddball Magazine was about the subject of Juneteenth.