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SURVIVED!

My ancestry is a long one
We've outlasted the kidnappings, boats, beatings,
poisonous blankets, rotten food,
Lynching, massacres, rapes and more,
Yet, we've survived!

We have been put on land
where nothing would grow,
Or everything we made was taken
For what we didn't get
denied rights others took for granted.
Yet, we've survived!

We fought in each and every battle
we were the first to die
gave you unbreakable codes
put in the back,
but the first to fight, the last to fly
surveyed your capitol, charted the wilderness
Produced products and inventions the would still use,
Yes, we've survived!

We marched, were killed, hosed and beaten,
But all were granted the rights we so valiantly fought for
And new we watch as they are slowly taken away again
And yes, we will still survive!

Now years later, we are still downtrodden,
Second class, but somehow, we've forgotten the pass,
And in doing so, put ourselves back to where we were,
Where we should not be!

But, somehow we'll survive,
It's in our nature
We will again, someday, raise up
Remember where we've come from
Where we've been
What we've went through
And, who we are!

Like the legendary Phoenix of old, we will rise again,
We will be able to truly say
I've survived the hell, the fire, the storm,
Any and everything thrown my way
I'm free, a force to be reckoned with,
I have survived!

MAW - 7/12/06