Poetry

ELEGY FOR CHARLIE DAVIS

To Warden Charles Davis,

I’m sorry

      for your ignorance

      racism

      corrupt soul

for whoever did this to you

for the fact that you were white in the 1920’s

Sorry your clean, white hands ever held power

      the shape of a whip

      dark, bloodied leather

      the curve of a back

      the scalding skin of a black

Sorry you didn’t die sooner

Sorry you didn’t know the pain

       of a whip-induced CRACK

You were a hero to many

When you stuffed those pills

      down the dead man’s throat

A hero to twisted white people everywhere

A man of many talents

and one damned secret

I’m proud of you

      dead man, I’ll keep it

But to Warden Charles Davis

      Fuck you

I am not sorry you’re dead

I’m sorry James Knox is

Fools equate color with feeling

Black is bad

White is good

You are

      Free

      A fool

Tried and true

Red and blue

This country, your home

Alabama, letting you go

The convict-labor lease system brought him to you

Your country, your home, your Alabama,

      not his

Thirty dollar James Knox

Thirty dollar James Knox,

      boiled and bruised

Like a poor man’s dinner

Four years later

      “Free and scattered about the country”

Coming for to carry them home

Carry you to hell

      Swing Low

      Sweet Chariot

Warden Charles Davis