Of What significant am I

Of what significance am I really?
I
Of what significance am I really?
To use the tongue
To hold my roots spell bound
Me!
Remind them who they are
What they stand for
Reduce them
To what they aren’t
Remind them of everything forgotten
 
That once upon a time they were more than black sweaty bodies
Sooty and sticky
Smelly, purely disposable;
Reduced to
Nothing
 
That a dog was once much
Better than they
That a whoring bitch-dog was to them, once of saintly
Status
 
That the oppressor’s tongue
Reduced my fathers,
My kings:
To nothing more than a wee-wee’s sound
Their back flesh wrenched in shreds
Like a tractor’s work in the fields they worked.
Big ,broad, strong hungry shoulders wet in sweat;
 
They are soldiering on,
Panting as they go
That’s who they were once
That’s who we were once
That is me
That is who I was.
 
Oh my tongue; soap is not enough to wash this off.