When Fannie Lou Hamer Said

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired 

           She meant

                      No more turned cheek

                      No more patience for the obstruction

                      of black woman’s right to vote

                      & plant & feed her family

           She meant

                      Equality will cost you your luxurious life

                      If a Black woman can’t vote

                      If a brown baby can’t be fed

                      If we all don’t have the same opportunity America promised

           She meant

                      Ain’t no mountain boulder enough

                      to wan off a determined woman

           She meant

                      Here

           Look at my hands

                      Each palm holds a history

                      of the 16 shots that chased me

                      harm free from a plantation shack

           Look at my eyes

                      Both these are windows

                      these little lights of mine

           She meant

                      Nothing but death can stop me

                      from marching out a jail cell still a free woman

           She meant

                      Nothing but death can stop me from running for Congress

           She meant

                      No black jack beating will stop my feet from working

                      & my heart from swelling

                      & my mouth from praying

           She meant

                      America! you will learn freedom feels like

                      butter beans, potatoes & cotton seeds

                      picked by my sturdy hands



           She meant

           Look

           Victoria Gray, Anna Divine & Me

           In our rightful seats on the house floor

           She meant  

                      Until my children

                      & my children’s children

                      & they babies too

                      can March & vote

                      & get back in interest

                      what was planted

                      in this blessed land



           She meant

                      I ain’t stopping America

                      I ain’t stopping America

Not even death can take away from my woman’s hands

what I’ve rightfully earned

Copyright © 2019 by Mahogany Browne. Originally featured in Vibe. Used with permission of the author.