Many Roads are Better than One
by Caroline Donnola
Caroline wrote this poem in response to our current selection, In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements in the United States.
Revisit history
deeply enough
to drown out the noise
that clips our swirling thoughts
into tidy cliches—
easy to spit out in a tweet,
hard to reconcile with
what the people did
and how they did it.
Democratic Party
the savior of Black people?
Try that line
on Du Bois
Douglas
Baldwin
Fulani.
Tell it to Fannie Lou Hamer.
There’s more to this story,
more to this struggle.
Scorch the tree of knowledge
on which distortion hangs—
ripe as a bright red apple.
Plant new seeds,
joining together the struggles
of the locked out
the locked up
and the locked away.
Two roads
are better than one.
Many roads—
however many it takes—
to get somewhere new,
somewhere powerful,
with integrity
decency
love.
Caroline Donnola is Executive Assistant to Jacqueline Salit at Independent Voting. She is a lifelong poet and her book, The Year That Was, Poems for Troubled Times, will be published shortly.
***
Politics for the People Zoom Event
With Author Omar H. Ali
Sunday, February 21st
7pm ET
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This a beautiful. Deep, broad and precise.
Beautiful and spot on, Caroline. Let’s shout it from the hills!
Extremely powerful and to the point. When history is told these historical figures are usually left out.
Thanks, Caroline.
Outstanding Caroline. Thank you for writing your poem on the HISTORY OF TRUTH !
Thank you, Caroline … simply, beautiful