Tami Sawyer—
A Tennessee legend—
Met her biggest adversary in a park,
Sized him up good with tearful eyes:
Slave trader,
Confederate Army General,
The first Klansman
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Some things had to give.
Tami Sawyer
Made loud, sufficient noise
In her hometown of Memphis
In marshalling together youth & elders
In removing the toxicity of ages,
Graven blight,
Cleared the pedestals
Once and forever
Of racist trash.
THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!
Rednecks curse.
THE SOUTH HAS LOST AGAIN!
Anti-racists curse back.
Tami Sawyer
Knew, as her allies did, that
Rule by fear must end, starting when
Certain venerated idols cease to stand.
A single push
Toppled over one,
Then the rest
Fall like bronze and stone-carved
Dominoes.
Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active in creative writing and spoken word since the early 1990’s, he is the author of seven books–Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black (all from POOR Press), Elohi Unitsi (Conviction 2 Change Publishing), including his two most recent, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate (Vagabond Books) and Plans (Nomadic Press). He has fifty-three anthology appearances to date.
the Decolonial Passage 