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
