Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago

is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near

the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126



BURIAL,
A GHOST TOWN
amma birago
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
A.E. Housman
To An Athlete Dying Young.
Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126







BURIAL,
A GHOST TOWN
allensworth,
the town and the dream.


thirteen prose poems
inspired by the black experience,
also the gift outright, by Robert Frost and
mourning the man and
his American dream.












Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself.
It cannot Be call'd our mother, but our grave;
where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy;
the dead man's knell Is there scarce ask'd for who;
and good men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.
Macbeth, Act 4 scene 3

Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126











1. DREAMS DETTERED Page 3
2. WASTELAND Page 10
3. DREAMS INTERRED page 14





Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126







DREAMS DETERRED.
OUR DREAMS INTERRED
In Rama was there a voice heard,
lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted,
because they are not.
Matthew 2 v 18

Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126






The times tables turn.
Our case upended.

The water table in Allensworth country turned,
the homesteaders in the colony gathered.
At the First Baptist Church the news breaks:
The tables have turned. The water tables have turned.
Our world upside down.
The tables have turned. The water and the times table.
The mammies statuesque in the fields and near swallowed up
by the tall grass, their case upheld; silver platters to the gods,
unleavened bread upon the altar as prayers came forth
towards foreign gods and correspondence appeasement.
The tables have turned. The water tables have turned.
Our world upside down.



Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126










Ways and Means.
Dreams of College town and Tuskegee of the west.

Assembly Bill No. 299
Allensworth was struck so was the hope of glory.
Our dreaming of Liberia and Forah Bay, college town and Tuskegee of the west laid to rest.

Ways and Means. Assembly Bill No. 299.
Dreams of College town, Tuskegee of the west, grubstake and golden spike.
Dreams of sturdy seedlings Deep South and in the heart of alkaline San Joaquin County.

When Allenswoth was struck, we huddled in the one room,
the vestry of the AME Zion Church and prayed, our groaning and accents making known
our request.
That night the persecution of Spirit Six squarely at the door
and behind them the apparition of a host of men their burning crucifixes
crossing paths in our dreams.
Men pale and ghoulish in the night, their yelling echoing in the dry wells like dry spells.

Assembly Bill No. 299
Allensworth was struck so was the hope of glory.
Our dreaming of Liberia and Forah Bay, college town and Tuskegee of the west laid to rest.




Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126








This world is not our own.
Palimpsest by this heavenly light.

It was the golden age of our dreams and dreamings;
pilgrims in a land stranger still, to Allensworth we came on foot,
clutching to our breasts pamphlets and promises of surveyists,
men of science and expeditions.

It was the golden age of our dreams and dreamings;
To Allensworth we came by the Indians trail,
his broken song for compassionate guide,
our eyes to Black Hills, Spirit Six,
a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.

It was the golden age of our dreams and dreamings;
We were the new frontiersmen, the new pioneers.
It was the golden age of our dreams and dreamings;
We were pilgrims in a land stranger still.

This world is not our own.
Palimpsest by this heavenly light.










Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126





Dreams deferred soon interred.
On this day the 13th of September, 1914, our dreams interred.
At Rosedale Cemetery our dreams interred.
By military honor guard to Rosedale from
the Second Baptist church of Los Angeles,
Our broken dreams and disturbed sleep interred.

Five years ago on this day, we were like ghosts with broken mouths,
orphans with broken faces, our primary sacrifice unsung,
minus profit or reward, all loss and no salvage value,
in living daylights and broad color, the forerunners of our present sacrifice,
our dreams broken faced and showcasing ghost town disgraced,
our dreams and our town become our burying ground;
our dreams and our town, our burial place.

On this day the 13th of September, 1914, our dreams interred.
At Rosedale Cemetery our dreams interred.
We survived lynching, and starvation, the trek on foot
and cross country from Deep South to these parts
Pacific California country.
We survived sacrifice, the stoke and kindle at the altar,
to die on pacific shores where hope floats,
where Beulaland, in desert country once paradise.

Five years ago on this day, we were like ghosts with broken mouths,
orphans with broken faces, our primary sacrifice unsung,
minus profit or reward, all loss and no salvage value,
in living daylights and broad color, the forerunners of our present sacrifice,
our dreams broken faced and showcasing ghost town disgraced,
our dreams and our town become our burying ground;
our dreams and our town, our burial place.

We survived sacrifice, the stoke and kindle at the altar,
to die on pacific shores where hope floats,
where Beulaland, in desert country once paradise.


Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126

Sal si puede. Sal si puede.
Waiting for the adoption. Make your calling and election sure.

The gift outright. At the San Francisco world fair, 13th of September, 1914, a year to the
day Allensworth was struck, the world at the fair and our world at war, the land like a quilt
lifted and taken off, a dream ripped apart. At the San Francisco world fair while "earth, air,
fire and water", "pioneers leaving the east" and pioneers arriving in the west", open cars
by Fageol in Oakland country, the good earth like a carpet pulled from beneath our feet.

The gift outright. At the San Francisco world fair, 13th of September, 1914, a year to the
day Allensworth was struck, the world at the fair and our world at war, the land like a quilt
lifted and taken off, a dream ripped apart and from the plains north west of San Joaquin
district, our dreams unappeased, our dreams and this land bought with our dreamings, our
toil and our tears before and now right before our eyes burying grounds. Dust storms and
dirt devils lift off and carry away our dreams like tooth-fairies bankrupt and our dreamings
nightmare.

Sal si puede. Sal si puede.
There is no country here for you. This here is not your country. This here is no country.
At the San Francisco world fair, while the world was at the fair our world at war and the
topsoil of our dreaming and paradise like a quilt lifted off. At the San Francisco world fair
where "earth, air, fire and water", "pioneers leaving the east" and pioneers arriving in the
west", the land holds no water, the ground removed from beneath our feet, the ground,
desiccated seedpod breaks open becoming to us living graves, its bosoms where dreams
like tentacles seek life and finding none die.

Sal si puede. Sal si puede.
There is no country here for you. This here is not your country. This here is no country.
The surveymen, the husbandmen, the men of science and new technology vowing a high
water table, high enough for our children and their childrens children, while the world at
the San Francisco world fair, our world at war, the water table turns and our world
tumbling and ticking time at the bottom of the well, the surveyists and men of science
unable to look us in the eye, and our tears welling up.

At the San Francisco world fair, while the world was at the fair our world at war,
in Allensworth, in the heart of San Joaquin country, the topsoil like a quilt lifted off.
At the San Francisco world fair where "earth, air, fire and water",
"pioneers leaving the east" and pioneers arriving in the west",
the land holds no water and the heart once swollen with pride breaks and so does the back
of our dreaming, our dream of a place in the sun and a country to call home now a hoax.

Sal si puede. Sal si puede.
There is no country here for you. This here is not your country. This here is no country.
Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126
1919. Red summer.

Pioneer Infantry Band, Brest Harbor, France.
Paradise Public domain.
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus,
Steal away, steal away home, I aint got long to stay here.

1919. Red summer.
We were like men come from Liberia and not Deep South bound for Allensworth.
Veterans emerged from a World War where action and sacrifice the preserve of white folks,
the grandfather clause disqualified us from the vote and the possibility of becoming heroes,
disallowed from giving our lives and our blood, disallowed from dying for citizenship
posthumous, so that such as we were we gave ourselves outright, we gave what were, we
gave life by music, sorrow songs hitherto unknown.

Pioneer Infantry Band, Brest Harbor, France.
Paradise Public domain.
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus,
Steal away, steal away home, I aint got long to stay here.

We were like men come from Liberia and not Deep South
prospecting Gods country westward and up for grabs:
The domain rendered public after the war,
the country growing, wresting itself west, wrestling with angels noble and savage,
for the public domain.

From Arkansas and deep Mississippi,
we were like men rising up from a riotous slumber we approached the landscape,
its lay just uncovered and promising.
We came upon El Paso and dreams El Dorado side-stepped,
we came, with dreams of a just society for breastplate and faith our feet shod.
We were like men come from Liberia and not Deep South bound for Allensworth.
Veterans taken off our garments of wrongs done
our special grievances stricken off the ledgers America.
From the plains of our dreams dreaming,
south to Bakersfield, north to Sacramento,
Veterans back to a world foreign to us, a country which will throw us to the dogs,
the gods as well, Spirit Six.

1919. Red summer.
Pioneer Infantry Band, Brest Harbor, France.
Paradise Public domain.
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus,
Steal away, steal away home, I aint got long to stay here.
Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126












WASTELAND
Thebes is tossed on a murdering sea And cannot lift her head from the death surge.
A rust consumes the buds and fruits of the earth; The herds are sick; children die unborn,
And labor is vain. . . . Death alone Battens upon the misery of Thebes.
. . . The noble plowland bears no grain And groaning mothers cannot bear?
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Before the palace of Oedipus, King of Thebes.
Prologue




Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126



1919. General Electric Calendar.
Edison Mazda. Spirit of the night.
Liberty Guiding the people.
We dreamed of city of industry and much progress, and for each in our hands we held the
blueprints. We dreamed of a college town, city of industry and we had patents, over four
hundred patents. We dreamed of our own money, banks, systems of credit, of savings and
loans and their terms ours. We dreamed of city of industry and much progress, and for each
in our hands we held the blueprints. We dreamed of a college town, city of industry and we
had patents, over four hundred patents. We dreamed of our own money, banks, systems of
credit, of savings and loans and their terms ours.
1919. General Electric Calendar.
Edison Mazda. Spirit of the night.
Liberty Guiding the people.
We dreamed of city of industry and much progress, and for each in our hands we held the
blueprints. We dreamed of a college town, city of industry and we had patents, over four
hundred patents. We dreamed of our own money, banks, systems of credit, of savings and
loans and their terms ours. We dreamed of city of industry and much progress.
On our coin this woman named for India, her mothers people, and to us Edison Mazda. A
jar of oil and on another a cornucopia in the crook of her arm, and another at the water
well. Our money coined after was a woman who lived in Allensworth amongst us.
1919. General Electric Calendar.
Edison Mazda. Spirit of the night.
Liberty Guiding the people.



Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126
Birth of a Nation.
A second time into the womb.
From San Joaquin Valley, we watched birth of this nation. The lands vast and expanse
harangued by sobs stifled, black and barefoot. The lands vast and expanse harangued by
accents groaning from yonder reservation camp, echoes coming in as the crow flies from
where trail of tears by Spirit Six and steady gaze close circuit.

The deed of gift many deeds of war, of war and the primary sacrifice.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. The gift outright.

From San Joaquin Valley, we watched birth of this nation, when it is that our mothers and
their mothers mothers had carried already once and primary carried amongst them and
intrauterine this here country on their backs and not lying down. Our mothers and their
mothers mothers, on their backs, not lying down and at their breasts, full grown this here
peoples yet and still yearning birth and rebirth. Birth of this nation, when our mothers and
their mothers mothers, had carried it on their backs. Before they were the lands it was on
our backs, not lying down and our blood intrauterine.
The deed of gift many deeds of war, of war and the primary sacrifice. Such as we were we
gave ourselves outright. The gift outright.

Before we were the lands we were Deep South. Something they were withholding made
them weak Until they find out that it is themselves they are withholding from the land of
the living, and not until them will they find salvation in surrender.

The deed of gift many deeds of war, of war and the primary sacrifice.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. The gift outright.

The ancients stoke fires under altars, causing wars civil and uncivil like priests to purge the
land, regulators, paddyrollers and vigilantes roam the land, new colonials, look to claim
narratives claiming the gift outright, looking to claim who first loved the land by blood, toil
and tears, this Adams land, Gods country, the deed of gift many deeds of war, of war and
the primary sacrifice and the gift outright embracing the spirit of this land
belonging to those unable to own a thing and up for grabs by the land, possessed by what
they could not possess, therefore in this the true Americans with nothing to withhold from
the land and nothing of theirs the land desired for her altar and her sepulcher for they were
men unpossessed. Such as they were we gave themselves outright, blood, body and soul.
Themselves not withheld from the land of living, so that they found salvation in this gift
outright, forthwith, the deed of gift many deeds of war, to the land vaguely realizing
westward, unstoried, artless, unenhanced.

The deed of gift many deeds of war, of war and the primary sacrifice.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. The gift outright.

Such as she was, such as she would become
Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126










Six Vestal Virgins.
Ritual Song of the midwives, the womb providers.

Thebes is tossed on a murdering sea
And cannot lift her head from the death surge.

The dispossessed, dispossessing,
The disinherited, disinheriting,
And the banished, banishing.

Sacred fire of Vesta. Holy fire.
The gatekeepers abandon the city. The shepherd was struck,
the college disbanded. In the fields, the midwives raise their arms
outstretched in alms to a disgruntled god.

Sacred fire of Vesta. The stakes.
On the outskirts of the city, Six Vestal Virgins tied to the stake, buried alive.
In the city, the priests rend their cloaks and slash their palms, the fire commonweal run
amok.
On the altar, the golden red blood of a pregnant cows throat cut.
The purifying smoke of the city that never was, haunts the landscape,
Ghost town under lock and key, its new penny shine.

Six Vestal Virgins.
Ritual Song of the midwives, the womb providers.





Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126










A CALL TO MOURNING
the children remain like blades of grass over the earth
and all the children are singing louder than mourning.
- audre lorde, prologue, 1971.

Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126








The S. S. Yarmouth
Bound for Liberia, country of free Negro Peoples of the World.
Repatriation of Negroes. Liberia country.
Stocks and bonds. Black Star Line.
Garveys Negro World. Black Moses, Garvey, his word, his bond.

From Madison Square Garden, the UNIA reaches Harlem.
Garvey is president of Africa. Africa land.
Garvey is president of Negro Peoples of the World.

A UNIA delegation leaves for Liberia.
The S. S. Yarmouth is bound for Liberia, country of the Negro Peoples of the World.
The gift outright back to Africa land, Liberia, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The S. S. Yarmouth is bound for Liberia, country of the Negro Peoples of the World. The gift
outright. The gift outright back to Africa.

Bound for Liberia, country of free Negro Peoples of the World.
Repatriation of Negroes. Liberia country.
Stocks and bonds. Black Star Line.
Garveys Negro World. Black Moses, Garvey, his word, his bond.


Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126







To the husbandman.
A letter from Liberia: the winds out of our sails

A call to mourning.
Master narratives of loss like open ledgers
and accounts unacknowledged fester and remain not closed.
We are ourselves the gift and outright with dreams of citizenship,
prayers clasped with fervent hopes of the escaping;
the primary sacrifice, the victim and the stoke.

Master narratives of loss,
Master and mythic narratives of loss like open ledgers
and accounts unacknowledged, fester and remain not closed.

Now un-owned, could own nothing outright,
nor gift nor salary, nor citizenship nor ourselves.
Our dreams and values at our turn once again stoking the altars of nation and identity,
our special needs and grievances lost to a national cause.

We stood to lose to a nation never ours,
our strength once again taken from us,
primary sacrifice once again stoking the fires of the national altar.

A call to mourning.
Master narratives of loss like open ledgers
and accounts unacknowledged fester and remain not closed.
Having given of ourselves and the gift outright,
we were the primary sacrifice, the victim and the stoke.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright.

A call to mourning.




Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground amma birago
is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near
the end of their race.
John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Psalm 126





BURIAL,
A GHOST TOWN
allensworth,
the town and the dream.


thirteen prose poems
inspired by the black experience,
also the gift outright, by Robert Frost and
mourning the man and
his American dream.











Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself.
It cannot Be call'd our mother, but our grave;
where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy;
the dead man's knell Is there scarce ask'd for who;
and good men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.
Macbeth, Act 4 scene 3