Be content the great cloud of witnesses say.
All the mammies
Are dead
But they still speak
Reaching from ancestor
Planes, with burns
On their backs,
Limps, unwhole missing
Skin, Teeth and Limb
From the word no.
It is their strength
To survive they
Provide, while warning
Us of what it
Cost them to
say no–
And yes is better.
Yes to your will
Yes to your way
Yessa…Massa.
Warning us in dreams
Of the 2 faces of this
Life–peace and war.
Yet we war for peace,
And for our peace those
Who value nothing
War for everything!
Be danger of your
Fire because they
Liable to beat it outcha!
Cool yuh in the dark
Of the earth
Or make you new
Branches in juniper trees
Just do what they ask ya
Like they ask,
Yessuh, juss like that
Not everyone can
Run–
But not everyone
Can stay!
They died for our bravery
Bc no greater love
Has no man than this
To lay down his life
For his life for his friends–
Those whom
are alive and remain
And remain to be alive…
This bridge called
My back remembers
The lash,
And feet made flat
To go through grass
And swamp
As eyes water as the
Last memory held
Is being told not
To leave.
We have counted
The cost of fire
And bravery and
Bending the tongue
Of owners and masters
With the lips given
By The Word.
If He is always speaking–
Then so will we.
So will I.
-JBHarris, July 2022
I Breathe Fire 