The Forgotten Song

Very loosely based on the story of the four black girls at church in AL in 1963.

It lives only in memories now,
pieces of an old hymn,
a song of praise and redemption
and life ever after
A song of hallelujah
and amen
once sung by a choir of black voices
gone too soon
and disappeared
to their own ever-afters;
It lives among the charred remnants
of the old cloister,
high notes and perfect pitch
now muted and subdued
to those who want to remember but cannot;
It lives among the annals of history,
eclipsed by a church on fire
and black bodies burning.