High Water Everywhere

<p>Poetry collection by Gary Copeland Lilley. Lilley's collection addresses flashpoints in African American history including the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 and Hurricane Katrina. Second edition with new poems.</p><p>EXCERPT:</p><p><strong>Colonel Waddell on the Morning of November 10 1898</strong></p><p>from <strong><em>High Water Everywhere</em></strong></p><p>They vote Republican black. They walk</p><p>Our streets with their heads up with more freedom</p><p>Than a white man and now we have been made</p><p>To conduct our city's business under</p><p>The rule of carpet-baggers and negroes.</p><p>White men will suffer eternally</p><p>If we do not honor that it's our blood</p><p>That makes North Carolina sacred ground.</p><p>If we don't act they'll soon have the land</p><p>And all our grand history that's on it:</p><p>The Confederate graves all the gray men</p><p>From all our families to their proud deaths</p><p>Give glory honor the white way of life.</p><p>Let black bodies choke the Cape Fear River.</p>