Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Emmett Till. Emmett Till was born a black child on 25 July 1941. Next month I will, from 25 August 1941, be 82. Listening to a program about Till, it struck me hard, That he and I were companions in time-- He, an exact month older than I. But he lasted only, through terrible tragedy, to the age of 14. I, at 14, was in junior high school, absorbing a Shakespeare play, Never being moved to whistle at a woman (if that ever occurred), But I certainly thought women were something special. Emmett took a trip from Chicago to visit family in the South. I took a Mohawk Airlines flight from Boston To my grandparents' farm in Watkins Glen, NY. But how each voyage ended was--well, black and white. I am so sad my divided country treated him with such violence. I was fortunate that chromosomes Assorted themselves as they did to create me. But my trial--though I lived through it all, Was my ostracism when I opposed the Vietnam war-- Uncles and aunts wanted nothing to do with me as an 'unpatriot'. Much culminated for Emmett and me when I taught for three years in Africa To see the source-land of all Homo sapiens, And walk in the dust of Oldovai with the Leakeys. The plunder of Africans for basically free labor-- 1609 became as important for me as 1066. My aura drifts into that open casket with Emmett's mangled body. The Holocaust and the Scottish Clearances and 1609. . . . Somehow all of us have shared that casket with Emmett.                                                               Ahmen. . Frank Mauer 25 July 2023 1150 Hours.