Yeah, me, too. Over there, I was a liberator. People lined up in the streets waiting for us. Throwing flowers and cheering. And here I’m just another nigger pushing a plow.
Should my story end there? Silenced and defeated? Oppression, fear, deformity. It would take an extraordinary man to beat all that. I would have to wean myself off laudanum and self-pity… and travel with a little card in my shirt pocket that said “mute.”And then, finally… I would have to cross the Atlantic yet again. This time not for war. But for love.
You know what? You’re absolutely right. When we was overseas they didn’t make us use the back door. General Patton put us on the front line. Yes, sir. You know what we did? We kicked the hell out of Hitler and them Jerries! While y’all at home, safe and sound…
Daddy borrowed Mr. Robert and ‘nem truck to take me. That’s what I remember most. The first things and the last things… they always stick the hardest.
Coon, spade, darky, nigger… . Went off to fight for my country to come back to find it hadn’t changed a bit.
