Where I Came From: Destined To Be Free...

The oldest of ten siblings born and raised in Natchitoches Parish of Southern Louisiana on Antebellum Plantations

Constantly striving and surviving the elusive life and its manifestations.

We were subjected to the Jim Crow Laws of Segregation.

As we and our parents grappled with the manacles, chains of prejudice, and degradation

During the time up to the mid-1960s, when cotton was king, it was duly panoplied with abject discrimination.

The focus was to pick cotton and do other farming chores

Young boys of color were denied and prevented from education

A restriction prevailed for 10 years to open those doors

Still, focus on being destined to be free...

With the mindful knowledge of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863

When three million slaves were declared to be set free...

The enormity of time spent as sharecroppers in the southern State

It was our dream that freedom, liberation, was soon to be at the gate

Clearly seen and done with generations of our dads

Performing farming chores, migrant work, and free labor, all bad

Such encounters with the sharecroppers' situation were more than enough

Such an emergence unfolding through the mid-1960s was a bit too rough

The plethora of occurrences of lean times on our bodies was great wear and tear

The unappreciated labor of love from the plantation owners was brought to bear

It would be nice to occasionally have time to catch a glimpse of being free

Thus, the yearning to stop the tedious journey to grasp Civil rights was the plea

We still believe in faith, strength, choice, and sustaining hope

Holding on to sheer determination, willpower, faithfulness, and the reins of the rope

No matter the efforts or the presence the road roadblocks on the path of the journey of life

Whatever behavioral traits are needed to be tenacious and relentless

We worked on the cognitive mind to have positive thoughts to alter the strife

The sheer survival technique we held as sharecropper/tenant farmers was inherent in the beacon of light

Therefore, the revelation, the foreknowledge, and the perseverance for survival to overcome were the beacon of hope for the dream of the not-too-distant night.

I am indeed appreciative of the exposure inherent in the vicissitudes of the ‘suffering and glory’

With the sharing and telling of some of the painful events in the life of this aforementioned poetic story

While enduring painful events of life on the path of the journey, for how many of them might we be grateful today?

The simple truth is that most who never experience self-discovery believe that such situations of suffering and glory never came their way.

I am indeed privy to learned and know that every painful seed provides dimensions to really develop and grow.

Steve Braxton, National Poetry Contest Winner of "Best Poets Of 2024", Eber & Wein, a compilation, Library of Congress Data ISBN 978-1-60880-798-7