Cowboys and Indians and Torture Stories (WIP)

We watched a lot of television

when we were children

Barbie and Ken went to the Theater

to see Porgy and Bess

I am reminded that we liked

“Torture Stories”

The medieval thumbscrew

Spartacus and the rack

Cowboys and Indians!

We rooted for the Indians

They were savages

and were portrayed so

When the Indians tortured the Cowboys

We liked it!  Remember?

Then there were “Slave Stories”

Black people looked nothing like us

Slaves were bad people

They deserved to be whipped

When Slaves ran from their masters

for the Underground Railroad*

We screamed on ivory soaped knees

“Catch that nigga!”

Running like those colored people

in the Civil Rights Movement

Before my mother told me rather plainly

You are Colored too

 

Copyright 2015 by E Maria Shelton Speller. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

* “The entrance to the Underground Railroad remains unknown. After leaving our tunnel, slaves would try to make their way as far north as possible. There are no records as to who went through the tunnel or how many.”  First African BC Savannah, Georgia