You Imagine The South

Your professor prepares the class to watch footage of Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech. Your professor reads quotations from Plessy v. Ferguson. You are taught about the dismantling of Jim Crow laws. You remember seeing footage of the National Guard with rifles at Alabama schools. You imagine Jim Crow as a man. You imagine the National Guard lining up as a firing squad. You imagine the execution of Jim Crow. You imagine his grieving family as Racism and vowing vengeance on The South. You imagine The South retching in the throngs of that curse. You imagine Jim Crow smiling as he bled out knowing the terrible strength of his family. You imagine his rusting blood. You imagine his bullet wounds. You think of the military and state-bought bullets. You think of your soldier father. You remember his story of shooting a man in the leg. You remember the warnings and promises he made to the man in the foreign country. You remember thinking of a tank then. You remember tanks and their steel skin and earthquake tracks. You remember thinking of American flags tattooed on the tanks' turret and knowing they belonged to your nation's terribly strong family. You remember laughing and nodding at your father's story. You remember goodnight hugs afterward. You remember Dr, Martin Luther King Jr. as an accused plagiarist and philanderer. You watch the footage of Dr. King's speech with your legs crossed. You wonder about his family's tattoos as the speech ends.