Muscle Memory
When Adversity is Inscribed in Your Bones
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Supremacists, nationalists, history advocates—
they march because they say they will not let their place in history be forgotten.
their history be replaced.
their race be erased.
But who can forget the history and place of them in American history?
Who will forget the decimation of the indigenous peoples?
the "taming" and claiming of the West
The savage red skinned menace against the Belle of the South, the cowboy hero
Before the oncoming violent horde?
Who will forget the plantations of black bodies baking in the hot southern sun as slave owners stood by
Sipping tea with one hand whip ready in another
Symbol of graceful civilization?
Who will forget the railroads being built with the blood and sweat of minorities
and immigrants,
while American business tycoons raked in the profits
And wrote in newspapers
How they were building this country up
With their own two hands?
Who will forget the resistance to Integration,
who will forget the stories handed down to us by our grandparents
and mothers
and fathers,
of the KKK rallies, the Sundown Towns?
Of white robes and torches
While others were afraid of cemetery ghosts
We faced down monsters that were very much
Alive.
Who will forget the sites of hanging trees,
the lynchings,
the young black men dragged through the streets?
But by the logic of historical preservation
The trees should still wear their nooses
So proud heritages
Can go and kneel at their blood soaked roots
And remember
The good old days.
Who will forget
the burning crosses in the yards of black neighborhoods?
The broken windows and fear
Of whether or not the morning would come
With you as a man
Or corpse.
Who will forget
Montgomery
and Birmingham?
Who will forget the police raids
and beatings in the streets?
The batons that still sit in antique stores
That make you wonder
If you’ll feel scalp still melded
Into the hard cold plastic
Who will forget
the Whites Only signs in store front windows?
The shame of back alley scraps
And lowered fountains
That made you bend
Just for water
Who will forget
the Holocaust,
the Jews
and gays
and communists
dissidents
and innocents
shot and buried and burned alive
in the name of the Aryan race
and its history?
Who will forget
the forced sterilization
and eugenics programs here at home
by our court systems,
our laws,
against minorities and the poor
in order
to "purify" our country and never let another
"imbecile" ruin the bloodline?
Who will forget
Chavez
and X
and King
and the leaders forced to take a stand
against the oppression of an entire people?
Who will forget
the changing of laws
to allow interracial marriage,
to allow ownership of property
and guns
and homes to people of color?
The BBB and Fair Housing logos
Slapped on residential offices
To remind you
That they won’t call you
nigger
Or spic
When you’re signing the lease—
At least not anymore.
Who will forget
Dixiecrats
and assassinations
and the push to counteract the tyranny of oppression?
Laws that were necessary
To secure basic human rights
Because the amendments
Needed amendments
To say yes, actually
Those are people too.
You say the statues
are all you have to remember your history, but how can you be forgotten,
and replaced,
when the scars of your power
and privilege
and history
lay deep in my bones?
Bending my spine
Deep in my blood
Genetic nightmares of how close I came
To not being here to say this
Because
How can I forget you
in the stories of my mother
and father
being driven from their home,
with me in her arms,
as garbage cans are lobbed at us,
and our dog is tortured
through the gate with a sharpened stick?
To summon the police
Who, in the arms of my mother,
Were not there to save me
To cradle me
But to clean the street
Of our very feet
How can I forget
with the eyes of employees
watching my hands
and feet
and eyes
in the stores I choose to frequent?
Where even filling a cheap shit foam cup
Is tantamount to high larceny
Because my skin brands me
As someone who may not have the few coins to rub together
To drink this vile thing.
How can I forget
the fear
of having men rush my car,
cheering and hollering at me
that they have finally won?
When I never knew
They had ever started losing.
How can we forget
our dead brothers and sisters
and strangers
and the hanged
and the drowned
and the choked
and the bullet riddled
and and exiled
and the murdered
and the beaten,
And the unborn
No not abortions
But the dark bodies that never breathed Because lesser bloodlines
Were aborted with rope
And ovens
And guns
And court orders
And never even made it to the hospitals
To become someone's gaping heartache
And this is all
Unforgettable indelible proof remnants and memories of your presence
You say you only fight
to be remembered.
To have your voice heard
History preserved
Homeland secured
But my God.
How
Can
I
Ever
forget?
About the Creator
Jose Juarez
I'm a poet, a philosopher, a dissident, a Native, a storyteller and a contemplative mess.
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