Useful Poem by Debra McIntyre

Closed minds see the body of a female bent and broken at the waist
Delivering babies
Food and shelter to the anonymous faces in a society blinded by the truth of a lie told over and over again
Leaving out the most validating parts of who stooped her shoulders
A klan of cruel and belligerent men
Who used her womanhood for their sexual pleasure
Her hands knarled and worn past good measure
Performing a days work in the fields of her enemy
Her breast sagging
Sore and empty
From wet nursing the massahs chillins
Neglecting the basic needs of her own little one
Baking in the hot Sun strapped to her back ailing with fever
Negro spirituals were birthed in those fields
Proclaiming the sorrows of a people to real
To comprehend
Digest
Or ignore
But
They were ignored
That is
For as long as it took to build these United States
Evident on the choke cherry tree whip scars etched on
The backs of men thought not to be of the human race
But
They were useful
And
Unrewarded for their tortured existence and contributions
To this very day