Photo by Clarke Sanders on Unsplash
sunrise swallows me whole and
all of my ancestors lie before me,
the golden coins on their eyes
my train fare for the future
yet why can’t my feet move
a step and why does the sky not
have even a single star—the sun
suddenly run away somewhere even
the underground railroad can’t follow?
About the Creator
R.C. Taylor
I write to invoke, to process, to honor, to resurrect, and—sometimes—to grieve but, above all, I write to be free.
Follow along for stories about a little bit of everything (i.e. nostalgia and other affairs of the heart).
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Comments (8)
Wow powerful poem!!!!
Speaks VOLUMES! 👏🏾🙏🏾👏🏾
Train fare for the future huh? Type of poem that stops me in my tracks.. well penned 👏🏾
Ahhh this one. What a treat it was to hear it live!
Profound poetry, RC, and I hope vocal curators choose this as a top story.
As much as the past makes way for the future, life still has a way of paralyzing. It’s so easy to feel so much yet do so little, and it’s so easy to feel the shame for stagnation when we look back to who paved the way. We live in a nation that sometimes seems to regress with every breath it takes, and it can feel suffocating. But having the freedom to move, when you are ready to, is everything. Chills—this is phenomenal writing, R.C.
Sometimes the past, for all it’s strivings, hardships and lessons cannot chart a course forward for its children. Every generation has to find its own way into what is always an uncertain future. It does not help when our nation actively backtracks again and again on the promise of equality and equal access to the resources to make that future possible. Your poetry always makes me think and feel just as it always rewards thinking and feeling! Great writing, RC.
Profound and fantastically-written! BRAVO!