Juneteenth 2015
Feeling the rain come
cave-cool air, white
and empty but for
the breeze.
Still water rushing
the trees, sleepy
birds sitting at rest
call out the change
while tone on tone chimes
echo from far below.
The drops fall –
spare, invisible, too few.
My dry, gray lawn
is thirsty and longs
for a drenching, healing
the brittle, breakable land.
Hollow grasses like so many
hollow words, ache to be
filled, water that would wash
away this dusty, aching
emptiness.
Dear God, may it pour.
c. Jody Lee Collins 2015
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Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. I couldn’t help thinking as this poem came to me last night how the hatred of black people in this country is still very much alive. My heart breaks for Charleston.
