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Ghosts of Heroes by Anonymous
birthed Christmas 2009
former selves ready and not ready
give up the ghost not finished
fighting, laughing, loving,
la lucha
talk, read, write, play
the elder Lester Rodney
born April, 1911
worker, sports writer, communist
organizer, lover of life and tennis
recounts that battle
against that lily-white giant
forcing Branch Rickey to integrate
weapons: petitions, sports columns,
threats of empty stadiums
the Brooklyn Dodgers were forced to
buy Jackie Robinson from Kansas City
play him in Montréal
then 2nd base at Ebbetts Field
Dennis Brutus
November, 1924
poet, journalist, activist,
hell-raiser, incorrigible romantic
enemy of apartheid
cell mate of Nelson Mandela
from that Robben’s Island cell
Brutus blueprinted the boycott,
the Mexico City Olympic games boycott
a cultural boycott
a blessed by the ANC boycott
a black power boycott
an isolate South Africa boycott
no boxing, no tennis, no Olympics
end apartheid, boycott South Africa,
free Nelson Mandela
the ghosts talk of Jim Crow and apartheid
of sport, poetry, the Olympics
of defeat and victory
the future that will be
the past that might have been
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