Upon a hill
Upon a time
A man of rhythm
Lost his rhyme
Demon people
Draped in white
Set a crucifix
Alight
Tortured screams
His desperate shrill
Upon a time
Upon a hill
The hooded men
Lit up the sky
To watch a
Negro spirit fly
Blackened skin
More black than Jack
Had ever worn
Upon his back
Clung to bones
As black with char
This tortured soul
Of Africa
As flesh made way
The flames they soared
Upon a hill
The fire roared
Once in rhythm
Now in rhyme
Was black man Jack
Upon a time
Copyright © 2002 Terry Stephen Driscoll • All rights reserved.
Engraving from “Voices of Freedom,” Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1884.
Engraving from “Voices of Freedom,” Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1884.