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Strange Fruit

memory in living color

By Matthew J. FrommPublished 2 years ago 1 min read
Strange Fruit
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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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Free Versesad poetrysocial commentarysurreal poetrySong LyricsStream of Consciousnessslam poetryheartbreakperformance poetry

About the Creator

Matthew J. Fromm

Full-time nerd, history enthusiast, and proprietor of arcane knowledge.

Here there be dragons, knights, castles, and quests (plus the occasional dose of absurdity).

I can be reached at [email protected]

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    Written by Matthew J. Fromm