Shareholders

I rake dead leaves

and pick broken branches

from a city lot cut

from a plantation corpse

Land stolen by kings

and politicians with a pen

of cultural entitlement

Cleared by a people stolen

Currency of Atlantic trade

Collateral in the bank

Children of the dispossessed

ask for a fair share of profits

from land and labor stolen

And are told no more

government handouts

and that they must work

for what was stolen from them

1-18-20