I come from the colored section,
Negro portion,
red beans, rice, an colla greens.
I come from UC schools,
L.A High ,
Brooklyn Pools,
and Meager means.
Runaways:
‘wading in the water’
in Alabama backwoods.
and gospel benedictions
in Tennessee Baptist Churches.
I come from communal towns
from the Dakotas down
by way of Chicago steam.
Then on Irish tracks
Black migration back,
To the Jazz city where history sings
Cus railroads can’t erase the past
If trumpets tap its theme.
I come from those who crossed the Mighty Mississippi.
Rolled through amber waves of grain.
Climbed Purple Mountains majesty.
Whose descendents will make history bare their name
Both maiden and married a’ famed.
I come from black school teachers
and university of Chicago janitors
to U of C student
The son of corporate business managers.
I come from single mothers
and working fathers
from share cropping daughters
To men who are locally canonized as martyrs.
Like a child Born of Eden
Raised by the Angels
Who bath and feed them
I am the product of my atmosphere
An’ it took a divine village to raise me.
Aaron Goggans 