Read an Excerpt
Acolytes
How You Gonna Save 'Em? 1st Stanza
It's hard to save 'em
If they won't learn how to pray
Give 'em the blues
And make 'em weep all day
We Gather
An invocation for the underground railroad
We are gathered to fulfill a covenant . . . a vow made in cadence to the tramping feet carrying the weary . . . scarred . . . branded bodies harvested for the unspeakably vicious trade in slave labor
We are gathered because a sacred vow was made as these people . . . chained head to toe head to toe head to toe . . . with no room to turn . . . no privacy of body or soul . . . bereft of the comfort their Gods and languages could bring . . . allowed a curiosity . . . a wonder . . . a sense of newness . . . to give them the courage . . . to survive . . . to thrive . . . to find a new world
We are gathered in awe of the people who stood on the auction block . . . bent under the master or the lash . . . clearing land they could not claim . . . growing crops they could not share . . . birthing children they could only love in mem-ory . . . being shamed by powerlessness
We recognize it was never their shame
We gather in celebration of those who utilized the Underground Railroad . . . those who rode it and those who helped others get onboard
We flow bitter tears for those whose freedom was found at the end of a rope
We come to this moment having achieved neither restoration nor reparation but we come . . . we gather together with friends of freedom to commemorate the courageous men and women who have sacrificed their all for the uplifting of humankind . . . wefindin this moment the same moon reflecting the same brilliant sun . . . the same stars dancing among the same night skies
We gather because three hundred and eighty- four years ago the "Cargo" that stepped off a Dutch Man-of-War . . . being exchanged for food and water . . . recognizing this was not a good situation which would get better anytime soon . . . still decided to live . . . and fight their battle with a glorious song . . . raised to a new God . . . in a strange land
We gather because it is the right thing to do . . . and it is to that . . . that we say . . . Amen
Acolytes. Copyright ? by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.