Three Generations
Pop-Pop was born on the 29th of March,
two eras removed from slavery
where lynchings and segregation
were commonplace in postbellum,
southern states to keep Jim Crow alive,
making sure that Blacks knew
and remained in their place
but he believed in the promise of
better days and opportunities
for a better life imagined,
so, Pop-Pop walked,
stepping into an uncertain future
as part of the Great Migration North
rather than risking his chances of
being tarred and feathered or worse
living in a Tar Heel State,
settling in the City of Brotherly Love
doing his to make
a way for self and family
despite the demons
tormenting his soul
and his pride holding him back
from furthering his education.
II
Dad was born on the 9th of April,
the eldest of eight children
in the heart of the Great Depression,
learning to juggle at a young age
that most children weren’t expected to do so
growing up on South Philly streets
where the odds to succeed were against him
due to poverty and the color of his skin
but he too believed in the promise of
better days and opportunities
for a better life imagined,
so, Dad ran,
traveling faster than the wind
using skill and determination
to spring towards excellence at track meets
from high school contests
to Penn Relay competitions at Franklin Field
applying lessons learned
through athletic discipline along
with ingenuity and creativity
to also create a better life
for self and family
once his running days came to an end.
III
Billy was born on the 27th of March,
at the beginning of the carefree 70s,
where young men were drafted and entrenched
in the unjust Vietnam War
and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest,
shook up the world for the second time
by standing his ground as
a man of his convictions,
raised in Southwest Philly
and surrounding suburbs,
psychologically scarred by
one too many traumatic incidents
from being bullied to grief and loss,
but like his father and grandfather
he too believed in the promise of
better days and opportunities
for a better lie imagined,
fueled by Pop-Pop’s advice
to stay in school and
Dad’s Sunday afternoon outings
at the Philadelphia International Airport
watching airplanes depart into the blue skies,
so, Billy flew,
ascending over creative mountaintops
from childhood days indulging
in superhero/sci fi fantasies
to breathing life into adulthood dreams
expressed inside spiral notebooks
shared on thousands of
open mics and literary pages
for not only self-healing
and self-empowerment,
but to honor and represent
family, race, and community
for future generations to come.
Copyright © 2021 by Bill Holmes.
All rights reserved.
Bill Holmes is a writer, poet, and author of the poetry book Straight From My Heart; the spoken word CD, The Air I Breathe; the ESSENCE bestselling fiction novel One Love, and writer/director of the independent, award winning, short film, The Program and Butterflies. As a poet, Bill has opened for artists such as The Last Poets and jazz musician Roy Ayers. Bill’s work has been featured in publications such as 50BOLD, African Voices, and ESSENCE. Bill is also the founder of the creative-writing course Write Here! Write Now! which he taught at Temple University in Philadelphia through the grassroots, non-profit organization PASCEP.
