For Chadwick Boseman...

(c) 29 August 2020, the Griot Poet

Chadwick Boseman, November 29, 1976 - August 28, 2020, Rest in Power

65-year anniversary

Of the March on Washington, 1963,

Eight years after the death of Emmitt Till,

Socially-distanced angst of blood still at the root and in the streets,

Whether Jacob Blake, Ahmaud Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, or George Floyd were "angels,"

They are still U.S. citizens and human beings.

Chadwick Boseman

Was a real-life superhero,

Publicly weeping over the eventual loss

Of young fans, Ian and Taylor, succumbing to 

Their St. Jude struggle with cancer before his debut as their hero,

Not revealing his own challenges,

Fighting stage III colon cancer,

Eventually progressing to stage IV,

Making his skill at acting significant enough

For an Oscar awarded posthumously,

On the anniversary of "42,"

We are swooning at the news of Chadwick Boseman's loss at 43.

Counting the cost and pain of his numerous cancer therapies,

Of his character portrayals

Of our actual significant figures

Within the black community:

Jackie Robinson,

James Brown,

Thurgood Marshall,

T'Challa in "Black Panther,"

Was a fictional king

Of Utopian Wakanda,

Created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby,

Post Blue Marvel, an African superhero

We all looked up to,

Wakanda is a utopia, a nowhere state

That had its own eccentricities,

Brian Coogler's interpretation

Made us sympathetic to Erik Kilmonger and his critique,

Because Wakanda was free and haughtily receded,

From middle passage and civil rights interceeding,

I waited 50 years to see it from page to on-screen,

I still have my "Straight out of Wakanda" tee,

The pride that like me,

The actor graduated from a historically black university:

Howard University Bison Pride is

As thick as Aggie Pride at A&T,

Friends from Nigeria and Ghana

Spoke of public celebrations on the mother continent.

T'Challa has two meanings:

"Brave king," and

"He who puts the knife where it belonged,"

According to Marvel canon,

He never took roles beneath him,

Stereotypical, or culturally demeaning.

We cannot fathom beyond disbelief.

What our next stage will be,

As we go through the pain of this grief,

We lost him on a significant date

As we get ready to defend our democracy,

The March on Washington, 1963,

Led to:

The Civil Rights Act, 1964,

The Voting Rights Act, 1965,

The Fair Housing Act, 1968,

1968: the year, Nixon and Lee Atwater

Coined the phrase "law and order"

The first backlash,

To all those acts,

And klan hood/choir robe to the "Southern Strategy,"

We will put this knife where it belongs,

Straighten our backs and stand strong,

Cast our votes to dethrone this dark thing,

For our country in your memory, noble king.