To this present day and time

Who was the first father?

That started my family line

Who was my first mother?

In another day and time

Where in Africa did my origin begin?

And what great or small African tribe

Does my heritage fit in?

And my bloodline subscribes

I myself born in the Deep South

During the Jim Crow era of bigotry

In my mind I long to find out

The missing branches of my family tree

How many hot days in a Carolina sun

Did my ancestors slave in cotton fields?

How many of my ancestors did successfully run

Away from that horrid ordeal

How many were scattered across this great nation

Through whatever means separated them

Whether escape, or being sold from plantation to plantation

What horrid indignities did they experience way back then

What unmarked graves house the remains?

Of unknown ones in my family line

What unspeakable indignities and horrible pains

They endured in their march through time

And who were the remnants that made it through

By the grace of the lord God divine

Assuring my bloodline would make it to

And beyond this present day and time

H.Wilson