Brendan

Half step from freedom

by Brendan

Freedom cut short by words and a pen

The way the world was going is how it would end.

“I want to be free” is what he said,

But is he really without being me?

Hatred deep down inside of one another

Can’t we live in peace? Why can't we be brothers?

His life was like plastic, thrown away

Trying to survive, and live another day.

Hatred goes where I go, Where I want to go there is no room

No respect for them that I once knew.

Freedom isn’t gone but nor is it near

So hard to be ok, and not shed a tear.

This little light called freedom shines so bright

He fought for his freedom, he excites for his rights.

Listen to the words, listen to him speak

Hopefully the words don’t drift down a creek.

Letting go, lifting up your hands,

To say goodbye to all the people who took him from his land.

How or why? Saying he was free was a lie

His name will be heard, his story will be told

“We are all humans” yet he was sold for gold

Cleaning out the mess of the past time,

behold the future which is mine.

His life was not a treasure

Not a pleasure to endure, insure, that the mistakes stay in the past

And that Theophilus’s story will last.

Sometimes we need to close a door, to open a window.

How can we, America, assure the future?

We can’t.

Light doesn’t go through a door, light can go through a window.

Brendan’s Artist Statement

My poem was about his time during his enslavement, the sad and miserable time for Theophilus Niger, who didn’t get the justice that he deserved. He was enslaved by Thomas Hodgkin in what’s now Madison Connecticut.

In my poem I wanted you, the reader, to feel not ashamed but hopefully more knowledgeable about how things really went, the way people were absolutely cruel, and hopefully the past will not repeat itself. I want you to find more, and research more. I want you to think more; and think of his life and not your own - just for one minute to see his name and his story, which won’t be silenced. Theophilus’s life is like a cave in the woods, you don’t know much about the cave, but once you go in, you’ll find everything.