!DOCTYPE html> html> head lang=”en-US”> title>Every Hour Henceforth by Aberjhani/title> /div> h1 class=”pageTitle”>Every Hour Henceforth/h1> div class=”entry-content clearfix”> h2 itemprop=”author” class=”author”>by Aberjhani/h2> div itemprop=”genre” id=”content”> p>I know blackness as taught by my father:br /> “You are my joy and my genius,” he often said.br /> I know blackness as taught by my mother:br /> “Your smile is my robe of honor, your peace my earned grace.”/p> p>Once a year we were pilgrims driving from Atlantabr /> to Waycross where my brother and sister and Ibr /> would walk with our parents’ memories through the fieldsbr /> where they and their parents bled through Georgia summers,br /> just barely better off than slaves who died there.br /> “They took everything but the best thing,” my father moaned./p> p>I know divinity as wept by my mother: “Your eyesbr /> are the windows through which He watches over us.”br /> I know divinity as wept by my father: “Your veinsbr /> are the halls of glory where He meditates our fate.”/p> p>There in the fields of ignominies past, our handsbr /> would link and weld like burning rings of truth.br /> Passing over ground now fruitless and crackedbr /> my father’s foot crushed the skull of an albino serpent’s evil,br /> and my mother’s heel the sting of a dark scorpion’s ignorance.br /> “They killed everything but one good thing,” my mother said./p> p>I know power as sung by my father’s soul: “Every single onebr /> cut down left you a legacy of strength on top of strength.”br /> I know power as spun by my mother’s faith: “Don’t matter ifbr /> both arms break, your spirit can still lift a whole nation.”/p> p>We stop at the gray stone —bigger than I, then— marking the placebr /> where my father saw his father fall in the fire of a merciless hour.br /> We gather round him. His tears storm silent. Each drop splashesbr /> my head with pictures: Black Souls cryin’ all together; Black Soulsbr /> laughin’ all together; Black Souls shining bright all as one./p> p>“They ruined everything but the sacred thing,” said my father.br /> “We brought the Love with us and we keepin’ it still,” said my mother.br /> “Every hour henceforth we are delivered unto blessed triumph.”br /> “We brought the Love with us and we keepin’ it still.”/p> br> /body> /html>
