September Storm

The first signs that a storm was brewing
came on Sept 10,
when he tried to enter the university.
But for some, black skin is like a gathering cloud
and folks like to fear the rain
when they don’t have nothing better to do.

On Sept 25, the governor,
who thought he could stop the storm
(the thunder, the lightning
the torrential downpour
that young man embodied)
blocked him from entering Ole Miss.
But the governor didn’t know
that you can’t stop Mother Nature
and that her rage is greater than the power
of any old man’s pen.

On Sept 30, that young black man
and the tempest he brought with him
made a mockery of those cheap protections
meant to save them from the storm:
men standing at the gate, like shutters on windows
to keep the weather out.
But he blew in, with the force of a hurricane,
federal marshalls by his side,
and burst through those shutters at Ole Miss.

Later, folks down there
would remember that storm
and the trouble it caused,
riots that swelled and ebbed
like a storm surge,
and the debris it scattered about
(injured bodies and dead men).
They’d remember and they wouldn’t like it,
but they’d acknowledge
that you can’t stop a storm
once it’s going strong;
best to let it pass on through.



This poem is written in honor of James Meredith who, in September of 1962, became the first African American to be admitted and attend the University of MS…but of course, not without controversy…