100% Cotton

Gold cherry

By bhi

Thu, 22 Jul 2021
  • 853 reads
6 comments
 

“Made in Vietnam”

“Assembled in India”

“Country of Origin – Mexico”

Indentured rising in these t’s and shirts

Tortured hands picking the cotton balls

Separating the strands

carding

combing

blending

The pull of muscle the ache down from  

Descended slaves

Memory dormant in their malnourished flesh

Broken by the knotted whip

Blood noose tattooed necks behind the sun

That betrayed

Shadows within shadows

The faces of the first chained and bartered

My DNA remembers all

But we will not be like our ancestors

Our language buried

Songs broken in the wind of a new tongue

Now breaking free riding the solar rifts

The whisper of the universe

Runs through our children

The future humming into the rhythm of the present

And We are 100% pure

We

Us

We Us

We

Certificate 15
Poem

Comments

Submitted by rjnewlyn on

This is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day! Please share/retweet if you like it

Picture Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/32454422@N00/2997265506

(bhi – the picture has been added for publicity purposes. Please feel free to change or remove.)

 

 

Submitted by bhi on

Thank you so much!

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

 

"Now breaking free riding the solar rifts

The whisper of the universe

Runs through our children"

yes, and finding solutions to help people, unlike some other space programs. I love the sweep of history in this poem, the sense of MAKING  the power to do things differently, better. 

 

Submitted by bhi on

Di, it is the empowerment that comes with understanding the history and untangling the distortions. There is a new narrative being built, of inclusion and respect, but the noise of the past is still strong, and there is a way to go.

 

Submitted by marandina on

This poem traverses time so well denoting a past built on immoral practices. The last lines are soulful and optimistic. Beautifully done. Congrats on the well deserved POTD. Paul

 

Submitted by bhi on

Paul, thanks for reading. This was the result of listening to a documentary of the making of t-shirts which showed pictures of plantations with the overseers on horses and holding whips, and then the sweatshops in Asia where the fashion houses source their clothes; nothing has changed.