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Strange fruit hangin'
In the Georgia breeze
From the Poplar trees
They tell us
Avert our eyes
We’re too young
To see the bruises
And the scars
Reminders and Memorials of
How it’s planters
Deformed
Such a strange fruit
We struggle to remember
That activity so often forced
Into passivity
Trickle fed pictures
In black and white
So we may think
Such a strange fruit long extinct
A museum artifact
Like a great aunty’s picture
Tucked away
No longer dwelt upon
Those planters
of the strange fruit know
It’s easier for dust to cover
Their black and white crimes
Then the living color of
The blood-red juice
Running down the skins
Of the strange fruit
They hung
In the Georgia breeze
From the Poplar trees
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A/N:
Written for Juneteenth. Sampled from Billie Holiday.
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About the Creator
Matthew Fromm
Full-time nerd, history enthusiast, and proprietor of random knowledge. The best way to find your perfect story is to write it yourself.
Here there be dragons, and knights, and castles, and quests for entities not wishing to be found.
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Comments (10)
I want to write my story but I don't know how to use this app?
Suitably uncomfortable reading ❤
Beautifully written and so haunting. Well done!
Chilling, bringing this into the present.
Great poem, Matthew! An excellent sampling from the song with your own powerful lines
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Straight to the front page! That’s how it’s done. More importantly, the subject matter is immaculately timed. How can you not recognize it? Way to go Matt! And thank you, Vocal for the recognizing this. Happy Juneteenth everyone!
Most excellent! I love Ms. Holiday’s power house song and that she insisted to sing it despite the cruelty she endured because of the response of people in power. Well and truly perfectly timed.
Intense; brutally passionate with profound metaphorical use.
This is incredible. What an incredible visual picture you have painted. Great work
This is beautiful, saddening and impressively written, friend. I imagine this will be a Top Story soon enough. The moment I saw the title I thought of the Billie Holiday song and Blood on the Leaves by Kanye West.