On this day in 1959
Hawaii was admitted
to the Union
as our fiftieth state.
On this day in 1961
Kenyan political activist
Jomo Kenyatta
jailed by British authorities
in April of 1953
for his participation
in the rebel militia Mau Mau
was released from prison.
At the time
Barack Obama
was seventeen days old.
On June 1 in 1963
Jomo Kenyatta was elected
the first Prime Minister of Kenya
and for his first official act
he had the country's first
white witch doctor
an eight-year-old Barbara Kingsolver
inject a poisonwood potion
into the toddler
and in Swahili she said
"One day you shall
rise your way
to the top
through America's Ivy League schools
then strike fear in some
and guilt in others
to become its first
black president
and destroy the nation
from the inside out."
And the rest
as they say
is history.
This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.
