The Roll Call
Any half-decent rapper
Can conjure the dead,
Can reach into graves
And accuse God
Of Indian-giving.
The trick is ancestral,
No more magic than memory’s
Hidden strings & chains.
Trust me,
We haven’t forgotten a name.
Say them. Raise your hands.
Holler at me!
Thomas Sayers Ellis, “The Roll Call” from The Maverick Room. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Sayers Ellis. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press.
Source:
The Maverick Room
(Graywolf Press, 2005)
