Brothers By Blood

brothers and sisters by blood and
made strangers by slavery –
the domestic hearth with
its lessons and precious endearments
abolished when the end is slavery.

hearing the words brothers and sisters
must mean something –
something of import and value –
but slavery robbed these terms
of their true value to man.

she was gone clean out of sight
without a goodbye or such.
as my heart broke and my will died,
wounded by her grave betrayal,
i lay upon the ground, weeping bitter tears.

i sobbed myself to sleep –
to rest upon the healing wings
of an angel, soaring above
the clouds and earth as
i lay there, fitfully slumbering.

that healing balm –
so warm, so inviting –
was never more welcome
to a wounded soul than
that very first night.

brothers and sisters –
sharing the blood of
one loving mother, having
rested beneath her breasts
and been born from her womb.

now strangers, bound by slavery –
entered into bonds so degrading
no man, woman, child, or animal
should ever experience –
let alone live – a life that way.