Katrina: Ancestral Call

Louis Armstrong, your trumpet must be blowing

For the anguish of your people.

Sarah Vaughn, please moan for those who can’t seem

To utter a sound.

Duke Ellington, let your hands run across the keys

To tinkle the sound of tears from those lost in starvation.

Lady Day, cry out in soft tones

As you did when you sang “Bitter Fruit.”

There was bitter fruit in New Orleans

As folks begged for food and hung in lines for hours.

Count Basie, play those chords and hum along,

To soothe the anguish of Motherless children.

Saints of New Orleans, march down those muddy streets,

Playing your instruments to cleanse the toxicity

Of racism and neglect.

Play hard and loud in your funeral march

To comfort those bodies who lay on the street for days.

All musicians who have gone from the French Quarter

To a better place beyond,

Spread a blanket of comfort for those who still remain,

Like Fats Domino, who had to be carried out to safety.

Martin and Malcolm, lead us out to find a better life,

And remind us when we become complacent.

Medgar Evers and Fannie Lee Hamer, give us the Word

To stand before the delegates and say, “We must be heard!”

W. E. B. Dubois and Frederick Douglas, remind us to stand up

And orate and record our history

So this will not be forgotten!

Sojourner and Phyllis Wheatley, lead us to freedom

And help us create the poem that says,

“We can’t be turned around!”

Help us to bring forth those who will stand tall.

We need warriors to come forth and say,

“We will not allow our bodies to be stacked up again

  as our ancestors were in ships.”

We need children and young people to walk forward and say,

“We want the best education and we need nurturing so

  we can grow to be strong adults to fight the system bravely.”

We need allies: Black and White, Native and Latina, Asian and East Indian, Gay and Straight, Rich and Poor, to stand together and say,

“We see the the Racism and we will not allow it to happen

          anymore!"

"We see it and our eyes can’t be closed any longer!”

“We see the poor and disenfranchised and we will not allow 

  that anymore!"

“We will pull together so that All people will be free!”

“All men and women will have quality of life and will not be  

   ignored and treated with disrespect!"          

We need to stand together and march forth

To show the strength of our convictions and shout,

No more!  No more!  You will do this to us no more!

This time it’s out there, and you can’t sweep it under the rug

Of power and greed.

It won’t stay under there anymore!

This must NEVER happen again!

No more!  No more!

© Hilda Ward, 2014

New Orleans residents beside the road, waiting to be rescued after Hurricane Katrina
Photo by Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
from Wikimedia Commons