We sacrificed our children
armed them with gospel
instead of guns
sent them with words
to confront violence
taught them to turn
the other cheek
while the enemy wore hoods
carried ropes
while they hung us from
the trees we planted
we know terror
America – our Pontius Pilate
won’t let us walk
on water
don’t want to see us
rise again
~
Regina Jamison is a writer and educator who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry has appeared in Sinister Wisdom: Black Lesbian Revolution, Mom Egg Review, Five Two One Magazine, Magma Literary Journal, The Americas Poetry Festival of New York Anthology 2016, Promethean Literary Journal, Off the Rocks: An Anthology of GLBT Writing Vols. 14 & 15, and Poetry in Performance Journal Vol. 43. Online, her poetry has appeared on Indolent Press HIV Here & Now Series, Silver Birch Press – Me as a Child Series, and Promethean eZine. Her poems will also appear in the upcoming issue of Switchgrass Review. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at City College in New York. Her novel, Choosing Grace, is forthcoming next year with Bella Books.