Did you see the ghosts leave? Did you sense the sweaty specters rise with a stench and a stretch? (They have hovered a long time, you know.
) Looking about with grunts and giggles.
Did you notice their eye touches, glances and nods? They knew their cohorts would wreck and wrench but finally meld enough to rescue them from the place of Between Lives.
You bet, You bet they did.
Did you hear the ghosts depart? No more silent screams and curdling wails, Not this time! Only harmonious hums joined the primal tone- The tone that sounded at the bang.
You know the one.
The one that has been alive forever- The one that writes the songs- The tone of creation.
Did you feel the ghosts rise? If you feel at all, you did.
And I like to think you feel for souls, but especially for these Harmed Spirits.
Souls of Slavery.
Teased by years of stuttering progress.
Finally eased like a sigh by a 2008 unheralded, smooth fluke of a man DNAd with: America- where they lay and Africa- from whence they came (from whence we all came) If you saw, heard and felt, I will tell you the rest.
Because you did not see this- no one did.
Scattered amongst our earth, the dead un-equals, straightened.
With their muffled bruises, honorable cloth and unbent arms, they lifted themselves skyward, flashing their pearlies, floating on the celestial note.
The lofted so high- so high I tell you- They heard heaven.
And today- Well today, I believe Heaven heard them.
As I sat in a warm car on a cold street in Chicago, listening to the inauguration of Barack Obama, I began thinking about the magnificence of the day.
What more could be said, I wondered.
Pundits, heroes and hobos probed deep into issues of sense and nonsense.
But the place from where I write urged me to pen and paper.
And later to the computer to write and edit.
As a white male, I would not insult anyone of color (or myself for that matter) by purporting to have knowledge of the hurt of slavery.
But I can and did feel emotion as I wrote this in longhand in a Starbucks.
I did cry.
I felt a deep sadness for past injustices.
I saw slaves as so wronged, any comprehension of their wounds will forever elude me.
I can only wish their ghosts be free of restlessness and full of heaven forever.
As for Obama, I hope that he has the wisdom, compassion and vision to make this world a truly better place for him having been here.