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Writer's pictureThe Magnolia Literacy Project

Lana Brown "The Jig Is Up"

Updated: Jun 1, 2022

Magnolia Literacy Project Spotlight: Lana Brown Series

Highlighting the impact of racial inequity and inequality, poet, Lana Brown, addresses the movement towards a growing culture of inclusion.

Brown is a graduate of Alcorn State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Communications; a Master of Arts in Secondary English Education; and a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education with a Concentration in Reading and Gifted Education. She also holds a Specialist in Education degree in Psychometry from Jackson State University. An instructor in gifted education with the Natchez Adams School District, Brown was selected by the Mississippi Department of Education to be a member of the ELA/Literacy High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) Review Team in the fall of 2020.


"The Jig Is Up"


Put a big ole white hot air balloon

In the middle of town square

Sucked up all the lives

That have less value

On the racial scale

Just drug all in

Willy nilly

haphazardly

Regardless of origin

Just one determinant

MINORITY

Less than me


Just sucked up all potential

Left naked and exposed to society

Diminishing size and space

Suffocating

Robbed of identities

Displaced

Who wants to hear the voice

Of a culture who is obsolete?

Rulings have been made

Appraisals have been made

There is no value.

Bad imitations of the master copy

Zeroes


No longer able to rise to the occasion

You, masterful swindler of souls

Black ones

Fattening up for the slaughter

Creators of Purgatory on Earth

Leading melanated lambs to the wolves

Grounded, Deflated

Only existing through you

A ghost of what once was

ROYALTY


Status Update:

Current Disposition….

Demanding what’s owed to me and my ancestors

No apologies for where I’m from

No need for affiliations to certain cultures, races

Half breed

Part of one and not another

Accept the whole gift

Despite the bodies that put it together

I am ME

Unapologetically


Taking the gloves off

The hooks

The chains

The chastening belt

The whipping post

The addendums to the law

To make me inclusive

Replacing it with one cross

And….

An ALL seeing eye

My Awakening


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