A Slave's Freedom

A Slave’s Freedom

They said, they freed me.

The Emancipation Proclamation, freed me.

I was free to be a Nigger,

Coon, Colored, Negro, Black, an African American.

I am free to go to jail.

They told me, I was equal.

They introduced me to Jim Crow.

I am equal to the task of hard labor.

They told me not to be

Disenfranchised.

But not to my surprise

on their Capitols,

The battle flag still flies,

to remind me,

of how they freed me.