Rise Up Review
selective recall
We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.
—Anaïs Nin
i remember my daughter’s first smile
beneath a maternity ward Micky D heating lamp
recall as hauntingly familiar as battery acid
thrown into a public pool filled with black children
i remember wearing Levi 501s
RayBans
Black Panther / Huelga! / Power to The People! buttons
to my high school graduation
& the echo of a gunshot as the Messiah fell to hate
i remember first love’s
tentative carousing puppy love
an emotion so deep i almost perished
like the soldier flogged, lynched & castrated
on the soil he fought to honor
his hand to heart pledging red / whiter / Blue(s)
i remember signs leading disciplined anger:
I Am A Man!
rocks & bottles flying
&
scalding words like rock salt in open wounds
the ill-mannered fire hose
pushing & shoving men women & children
&
snarling Gestapo hounds incited to hate
i remember . . .
Chewy the pimp at the Main Motel on Union Ave.
To live life, you take the bitter with the sweet
i remember . . .
that ear-ringin’ beam-me-up boo-yah! sizzle
as the gorilla shifted
for better purchase on my back
i remember . . .
things were better yesterday that weren’t
—henry 7. reneau, jr.
henry 7. reneau, jr. does not Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or Instagram. He is not scared of change, nor stuck in the past; he, instead, has learned from the past that crack kills.
