Saturday, October 17, 2015

3/5 OF ALL OTHER BEATS AND RHYTHMS: 2006 TO 2015

by Elbert Tavon Briggs



Black Line-Carved Djembe Drum


The beats make me think
The drums keep beating

That same Ole beat again
moved Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley’s
14-year-old son to the Tallahatchie River

Rhythms moved the strange fruit
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit

We have to find some space on dry land
from sea to not so shiny

Those beats moved
Derrion Albert from Fenger High School
in blood all over cyberspace

Medgar was removed from earth forever
Malcolm X was killed teaching
Dr. King met the same fate preaching
Fred Hampton was shot in a room while sleeping

The beats make me think
The drums keep beating

Those beats moved Addie Mae, Denise, Carole, and Cynthia from
Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church
into heavenly spaces, and I had to face this
they were children just like me

Rhythms moved the strange fruit.
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit.

The drums were beating on March 1, 2012,
same ole view
the rhythms were not new
that moved 17-year-old Chris Wormely out of high school
into thin air
while talking to the principled

The drums were beating
Spring and Summer of 2006
The drums were beating for
Siretha “Nugget: White – 10-years old
Tsarina Powel – 12-years old
Starkesia Reed – 14-years old
Latasha Harlins – 15 – years old
Ryann Brown – 18-years old

The beats make me think
The drums keep beating

2007, 16-year-old Blair Holt
became the teacher of us all
made his friend fall
his young body was the lifesaving shield

Rhythms moved the strange fruit
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit

drums were beating on Sunday August 7, 2011
when 6 year-old Arianna Gibson
missed church and went straight to heaven

One year later
Spring gets leaped by Chicago’s coldest winter ever
March 17, 2012
around 3:40 p.m.
6 year-old Aliyah Shell was gun down
in Little Village not Wounded Knee
Little Aliyah was killed in urban combat
in a war she did not enlist to fight

Oh say can you see the last weekend of Winter
Yaw don’t know the Seasons
that’s the reason at least 10 died
at least 40 were wounded
yes there were some knees

The beats make me think
The drums keep beating

Sunday February 26, 2012
a mother and father’s lives became twisted hells
when their son, Trayvon Martin’s heart stopped beating

The beats make me think
The drums keep beating

Winter 2013
fifteen year-old   marched
D.C Presidential Inauguration Celebration
Then Hadiya and college prep high school classmates
sought sanctuary from rain, test-ings
and career future prepping
unaware that they were stepping
into the undeclared war
rattled and ran
but Hadiya fell from shots fired
her hopes and future expired

Rhythms moved the strange fruit
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit

February 9, 2013
I heard Mothers cry
drowned in tears
as my eyes saw her young years
like Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley’s son Emmett
her presence in that casket
represented too many lost young lives and dreams

The beats make me think
the drums keep beating

Winter of 2013
got even colder
as the streets became bolder
and took six Sons from two Mothers

The beats make me think
the drums keep beating

Rhythms moved the strange fruit
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit

Winter 2014
the drums were beating in Omaha, Nebraska
for 5 year –old Peyton Benson
snatched from the planet while eating cereal
No this is not a movie serial
and this it not a  dream sequel
5 year-old Peyton was my childhood friend’s Granddaughter

The beats make me think
the drums keep beating

Chicago September 2015
can't  escape
this un-dream
almost my birthday
shots fired
shots fired
shots fired
Grandmother
Daughter
Child in Mother’s womb
erased and human lives expired
11 months young baby
escaped with a gunshot wound

We have to find some space on dry land
from sea to not so shiny

The beats make me think
the drums keep beating
The beats make me think
the drums keep beating

That same Ole beat again
moved Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley’s
14-year-old son to the Tallahatchie River

Rhythms moved the strange fruit
Rhythms bruised the strange fruit

BEAT THE DRUMS FOR ALL OF THEM!!!


Elbert Tavon Briggs was born 1952 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Elbert studied at Northeastern Illinois University and currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.. Currently creating with the Randolph Street Poets @ the Chicago Cultural Center and workshopping with Poets & Patrons. This poem reflects his lifelong commitment to incorporate poetry, music, art, dance, and drama, to give voice to the voiceless. Elbert graduated from Arizona State University and served two years in AmeriCorps fighting the war on poverty in the Lower Delta.