HENRIETTA LACKS: A TRIBUTE

HENRIETTA LACKS

So this is how you died,

in whispers that you did not hear?

Left to an unheralded legacy,

a lingering immortality

that connects an advancement

to an atrocity,

modern day breakthroughs

pushed through by cutting edge scientists,

directly aligned with

the Tuskegee Experiments?

My darling,

a lab rat who loved to dance

with her kids and laugh

as if her life held meaning

beyond the meaningless value

placed upon such a simple thing

as consent in lieu of

entitlement.

So young. So bold. Burdened down

with the weight of everything that's wrong

with a coldly clinical eye

toward reciprocity,

explaining away the refusal

to correct a mistake

because of the hit

the stockholders may take,

capitalism clashes

with morality, leaving behind

the dusted remnants

of sharecroppers and a young mother

who loved to flash red nails

and strut in the midst

of an existential crisis.

No easy thing, to find recognition

as a human being,

in a society determined

to downplay such a thing.

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