Preview # 20, Shaggy Flores

Preview #20, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies

Guest Editor, Marvin X

Shaggy Flores, New York City

Letter for Bobo

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Asked him

If he remembers

That the ghost of Chicago Bobo

Still swims

in the shallows

Of the Tallahatchie River

Not far

From the town of Money

Where the only Green

That exists

Is the Evil

That Men Do

On Delta Summer

Back Roads

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Marked it urgent

So that Dixiecrat Hands

Could make

Prompt response

To the actions

Of August 28, 1955

When Wolf Whistles

Sold more then Tickets

And Bryant’s Grocery Market

Began to sell

2-cent Gum

Wrapped

With Grim Reaper

Death Cards

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Questioning

The hospitality of Sumner County

And its motto of prosperity

“A Good Place to Raise A Child”

Land

Of Strom Thurmond

Land

Of Sheriff Clarence Strider

Land

Of Jim Crow

Land

Of the Rope and Mob

Land

Of the Midnight Rides

And Southern

Pecan Tree Picnics

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Attached a copy

Of LOOK Magazine

And a picture

Of a 14 Year Old Corpse

In an open casket

Three Days

For the World to Witness

How a Swamp

Treats the mangled remains

Of Black youth

Wondered

If the names of Demons

Called Bryant and Milam

Still Haunt the Governor

And residents of Mississippi

In their sleep

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Gave him a list

Of his constituents

Told him that the following:

Will Moore
Reverend George Lee

Lamar Smith

Medgar Evers

And Raynard Johnson

Could no longer vote

Because they played

Poker with the Devil

And Drew Jokers

Dressed

As Separate but Equal

Executioners

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Requesting justice

For the family

Of Mamie Till Mobley

And Moses Wright

Provided an account

Of how a child

Carried his father’s ring

To the grave

While a panel

Of Conservative Council Citizens

Took less

Then 67 seconds

To honor

Anglo-Saxon Pride

made it Possible

For two southern boys

To receive $4000 payments

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Inserted a piece of Barb-Wire

And a Blade
from a Progressive Ginning Company Fan

Same as the one

That held Little Emmet

Down in the bowls

Of the Mighty Tallahatchie

Spoke of

Plessy V. Ferguson

And of Black Mondays

Imagined

That Poor Whites

Posing as Hunters

Rolled over in their graves

When Brown v. the Board of Education

Gave Negroes the right

To exist,

To breathe,

To live

In WHITE ONLY spaces

Sent a letter

To the governor of Mississippi today

Waited

67 Nights

For a response

That never came

Cried for 3 days

Prayed for the living

And honored the Dead

Wrote a poem

Ended with the words

When ALL is Quiet

When ALL is Still

In Mississippi

They still hear the screams

Of little

Emmet Till,
Rest in Peace
Emmet Till.

--Shaggey Flores

Shaggy Flores, was born and raised in the Spanish Harlem (NYC) then later in Puerto Rico and finally Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his primary and secondary education in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts. As a child, growing up in Robinson Gardens Housing Projects, he was heavily exposed to the work of the early Nuyorican Poets, his mother being a poet herself. Later in junior high and high school he showed a proficiency for writing and for creating short stories that depicted the Puerto Rican experience. He graduated from the High School of Commerce and eventually met a recruiter for the University of MA (BCP Program) who helped him continue his studies.

During the early nineties at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he was heavily involved with student politics, resurrecting old student organizations and creating new ones in the process. It was during this period that his work as a Nuyorican poet became known and he began to find elder Nuyorican Poets who could serve as mentors.

He completed his education at Umass with a degree in the African Diaspora and by creating the annual Voices for the Voiceless poetry concert. Voices is one of the largest Diaspora poetry concerts in the Northeast, bringing nationally established African Diaspora writers to the five-college community for one night of poetry. It was at this event that he established the Louis Reyes Rivera lifetime achievement award to honor legendary artists.

Submission deadline November 15. Send your poems on the theme Pan Africanism to jmarvinx@yahoo.com, include brief bio and pic, MS Word attachment