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A Lament for Black Panther
אֵיכָה Eichah — How, in what manner?
How lonely sits the city
who was once full of people
we have quarantined in safety or
taken to the streets for change
We who were chief among nations
now reflect from a place of ruinHow do we tell our children
Black Panther is dead?Bitterly we weep at night
tears upon our cheeks
out of all of our heroes
one stood a Marvel
Black power betrayed
by unruly death’s unfair advantageHow do we tell our children
Black Panther is dead?After affliction and in pandemic
America has gone into panic
law enforcement has become
an order of police state
the blood of another Black brother cries out
from fleet-forced city streets
How do we tell our children? Black Panther is dead.
Wakanda Forever we
lament from the blood bathed
city streets where black abundance
insists again on rising from ashes
and children of Power rise to be
princes of peace
It is likely safe to say that the list of Biblical scholars who focus a career in entirety on the book of Lamentations is probably short. Lamentations, a set of five poems (each 22 lines except the 66 line poem #3) authored by the prophet Jeremiah (yes, he gets his own book too) is a reflection, a…
