The Legend of Jocko Graves: The [I] Wonder [where we were] Years
In my Summer of Soul I listed to the Keats-ian Grasshopper
Of sweet soul music that would become the soundtrack of my life
That was the same week Woodstock was held
And that Americans landed on the moon
We were singing in Harlem in spite of all
And everything
Contrary to popular belief
James Brown did not teach us that we had Soul
But he definitely confirmed it
And he had a lot of co-signers
Now in my Keatsiian autumn I listen at the crickets
In the resounding silence coming from America’s second political party
As they Whitewash 1/6/2021
That sees the attempted coup as just another day in our country
America
And maybe it was
just business as usual
From the usual American suspects
I juxtapose the Pulitzer Prize winning 1619 Project
To Ahmaud Aubrey’s dead murdered body with sock less feet
And “long dirty toenails”
To an 18 year old White boy made a spokesman for The Right
Embedded with the conservative press
And offered jobs in congressional offices
Shown more deference and respect than an adult Black man
First running for his health
Then running for his LIFE
Not given the benefit of doubt
Had he resisted, three murderers
Would have gone free
People like to tell me that things have changed a lot since my summer of soul
Because we’ve had a Black-ish President
And a Black-ish Vice President
What they mean is
that it has changed for them
I’ve always had Black He-roes and Black she-roes
(and I’m looking at you here PAM GRIER)
They didn’t just show up
It’s just that now
They are widely seen
And others are aware of them, too
I have always been able to “say to myself what a wonderful world”
And I didn’t learn that at a mindfulness meditation retreat
Or from a Jungian analysts either
A nation of millions can’t hold us down
Nor COVID-19
Nor Neo-Nazis
Nor gerrymandering
Nor voter suppression
Will it all be better now just because
The Rolling Stones will no longer sing and play Brown Sugar?
Without asking the question:
Why were they singing in it so loudly and for so long?
How come it tasted so good?
Is Sir Paul MacCartney right?
Were The Rolling Stones just a Blues cover band?
Yeah, yeah, yeah — OOOOOOOOOO!
Cause representation matters.
I’m to old to swing
And so I sing
Sing to younger people with stronger arms and more nimble minds
So that you can swing for me
And swing for yourselves
Representation matters
Growing up we wondered how many times Charlton Heston could save the world:
Free the slaves from Pharaoh
Conqueror the Moors while dead on horseback
Set off the Alpha and Omega bomb on a planet of apes
And be the last man standing in the Omega Man
Until they would pry his gun from his cold dead hands
As he lay in a fountain dying like sci-fi Jesus
Like Rocky, I guess 75,000,000 American voters thought that
That bullshit was real
Ali, boma ye
Ali, boma ye
Ali, boma ye
Ali, boma ye
Ali, boma ye
Ali, boma ye
Shaft came just at the right time,
Just when everybody needed him
Smooth, Leather clad and funky
With his own theme song
Righting all the wrongs
Saving Hollywood and movie theaters
Because no one was believing Charlton Heston’s bullshit any more.
Sing of Urban Myths and the reclamation of Jacko Graves
The inspiration for lawn jockeys
Teenage hero of the revolutionary war who froze to death
Faithfully holding George Washington’s horse
As the pre-first President crossed the Delaware River
To ambush and murder Hessian soldiers in their sleep
It was a myth that became so pervasive, That our neighbors painted their lawn jockeys white in protest
That is
Before the White flight made them move out of the city
And into the cloistered suburbs
To hide behind gated communities
This poem is for
The Legend of Jacko Graves
and
“The [I] Wonder [Where We Were] Years” between my Summer of Soul
And my contemplative autumn
But before my winter of discontentedness
‘Cause everyone wants to go to Heaven
It’s just that nobody likes to die.
(By Heidi Lindemann and Michael Perry)
(Image Credit 1: Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. The Berkeley Revolution)
(Image Credit 2: Chase Hall, Jocko Graves (The Faithful Groomsman), Jenkins Johnson Gallery)