Black and White
Angelina has the complexion of mocha
Her hair has the aroma of jasmine
Her skin is as smooth as fresh tapioca
My soul is afire when her lips touch mine.
Like our hero Dr. King, we both have a dream
We laugh and we play we have nothing to hide
This will go on forever or so it would seem.
On the carousel of ecstasy we continue to ride.
Then one day the nightmare sneaks in
Unspeakable horror engulf us in pain
Someone has defaced that beautiful skin
Some things just won’t ever be the same.
Never before have I encountered such hate
I hunt the man down with my very last breath
We are girded for battle on that perilous date
Using my bare hands, I put him to death.
I spent weeks in intense hospitalization
But my emotional injures reach to my core
After a while I came to the realization
His stay was brief, down in the morgue.
Angelina is gone, I know not where
The “powers that be” say it us better this way
I cry when I think of her bound to a chair
I miss my Angelina. There is nothing more to say.
© Tim D. Culey =2011=
Author’s Note:
This is a true story. It happened in 1970 in Yokosuka, Japan. Angelina was nearly beaten to death by her ex-husband because he didn’t think it was appropriate for her as a black woman to be with a white man.
While I was recovering in the hospital from the fight, the U.S. Military arranged for Angelina to be placed into the military equivalent of the Witness Protection Program. She would need extensive (and expensive) medical care, rehabilitation therapy and cosmetic surgery, none of which was financially possible.
The agreement she entered into was that that they would take care of those expenses for the rest of her life, but she had to start over with a new identity and was forbidden to speak of or communicate with anyone what happened in Yokosuka.
She detailed all this in a “farewell” letter which was given to me after I was released from the hospital. She asked that I forget her and never try to find her. I could do neither. I’ll never forget her but am somewhat certain that I will never find her, even though I tried for over 40 years.
As for me, no charges were ever filed against me. The “Official Report” indicated her late ex husband apparently got drunk and was run over by a bus. An investigation by ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) revealed that this wasn't the first time he had mutilated a woman with a straight razor and blunt objects of some kind.
I've often thought that the Navy probably didn't want this information made public and were willing to take care of Angelina as a way of compensation for not acting earlier, but I'm probably more generous in that assumptiom than they deserve.
My injuries were reported as to having occurred during an intensive “Top Secret” mission in Viet Nan.
