Heartbroken, as I watched video footage of Lieutenant Caron Nazario‘s brutalization in Virginia by yet two more rogue and racist American policemen, I decided to share some verses from one of Damon Chandler’s poems – “Battlefield Citizen” in Come Drink From My Cup: Musings of an East Harlem Poet. Damon wrote the collection over the many years he spent dealing with PTSD – the result of his service as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War.
Battlefield Citizen (A Marine’s Question) 2 verses
You snatched us up from Africa,
You brought us to your shores.
You put us in chains and cotton,
And wrote new slavery laws.
We worked the land, that was your plan,
You took our blood and sweat.
We gave and kept on giving,
But we were never supposed to get.
America, America, you fought for liberty,
But tell me this, America, when will I ever be free?
…when war is over, I return home full of pride,
To enjoy the freedom I had fought for, only to be denied,
Our American dream is but a nightmare, filled with greed and deceit,
A cesspool of lies, in a clever disguise, where love has been replaced by hate.
america, america, God shed his grace on thee,
But you turned around, shoved me in the ground, and spit on democracy.
This, from a Black man, who volunteered for the Marines at the age of seventeen, served his four years in the jungles of Vietnam, devoted to the cause of defending his country, body and soul.
Army Lieutenant Nazario is the victim of police brutality at the same time that we mourn the death of Daunte Wright at the hands of police just a few miles from where Derek Chauvin, another brutal police officer is being tried for the murder of George Floyd. All the victims? Black men – so horribly predictable!
Black Americans are not calling for anything other than what all Americans – indeed, all human beings – deserve. To be respected, to thrive according to our abilities and talents, to be able to vote for our leaders, earn a living, buy a home, build a business, to expect the law enforcement officers – who we pay to protect and serve – to protect and serve us as faithfully as they protect and serve White Americans. We have been exceedingly patient! What’s it going to take America???
(Come Drink from My Cup – on sale here in Shop)