Miz Rosa Rides the Bus by Angela Jackson (1993)

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Miz Rosa Rides The Bus portrays two incidents at the same time, expecting to enjoy the December holiday, while at the same time in a ride. However, it turned out that December turned to disaster as the situation she was not aware of and prepared for. Though she has hauled away, the author still portrays the irony. [1]

Poetry

That day in December I sat down

by Miss Muffet of Montgomery.

I was myriad-weary. Feets swole

from sewing seams on a filthy fabric;

tired-sore a pedalin’ the rusty Singer;

dingy cotton thread jammed in the eye.

All lifelong I’d slide through century-reams

loathsome with tears. Dreaming my own

silk-self.

It was not like they all say. Miss Liberty Muffet

she didn’t

jump at the sight of me.

Not exactly.

They hauled me

away—a thousand kicking legs pinned down.

The rest of me I tell you—a cloud.

Beautiful trouble on the dead December

horizon. Come to sit in judgment.

How many miles as the Jim Crow flies?

Over oceans and some. I rumbled.

They couldn’t hold me down. Long.

No.

My feets were tired. My eyes were

sore. My heart was raw from hemming

dirty edges of Miss L. Muffet’s garment.

I rode again.

A thousand bloody miles after the Crow flies

that day in December long remembered when I sat down

beside Miss Muffet of Montgomery.

I said—like the joke say—What’s in the bowl, Thief?

I said—That’s your curse.

I said—This my way.

She slipped her frock, disembarked,

settled in the suburbs, deaf, mute, lewd, and blind.

The bowl she left behind. The empty bowl mine.

The spoiled dress.

Jim Crow dies and ravens come with crumbs.

They say—Eat and be satisfied.

I fast and pray and ride. [2]

Author

Angela Jackson was born on July 25, 1951 in Greenville, Mississippi, the fifth of nine children. Jackson grew up on the South Side of Chicago. She joined the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) with fellow young black writers, Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), Carolyn Rodgers, Sterling Plumpp, and was an editor of the journal Nommo. [3]

Her parents moved to Chicago where Jackson attended St. Anne’s Catholic School. Graduating in 1968 from Loretto Academy with a pre-med scholarship to Northwestern University. She received her B.A. degree in 1977 from Northwestern University and went on her M.A degree from the University of Chicago. [4]

The award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist has published three chapbooks and four volumes of poetry. [5]

Jackson’s free verse poems focus on myth and life experience, invocation, and conversation. According to poetryfoundation.org, her works including Voo Doo/Love Magic (1974); Dark Legs and Silk Kisses: The Beatitudes of the Spinners (1993), winning the Carl Sandburg Award; National Book Award–nominated And All These Roads Be Luminous: Poems Selected and New (1998); and It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time (2015). She has also written several plays, including Witness! (1978), Shango Diaspora: An African-American Myth of Womanhood and Love (1980), and When the Wind Blows (1984), as well as novel Where I Must Go (2009) won the American Book Award. She honors a Pushcart Prize, TriQuarterly’s Daniel Curley Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award. [6]

Racism Issue

The poem recognize a historical moment where a woman fighting against racial segregation and worked for hours to get through life in society. The poem depicts, allowing the reader to visualize and understand how harsh the working conditions that Rosa Parks worked under, described by Rosa Parks was ‘hauled out’ the bus and held down, yet Rosa never gave up. Rosa continued to fight for what she believed and that is the important thing. [7]

References

  1. Generally the main theme of the poem is the theme of. Course Hero. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  2. Poetry and the Civil Rights Movement. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  3. Angela Jackson. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  4. Angela Jackson History. The History Makers. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  5. Angela Jackson Biography. Illinois Gov. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  6. Angela Jackson. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved January 15, 2021
  7. Nayapapaya. Poem Responses. Sanaya's Poetry Blog. October 23, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2021