John Henry

John Henry was a steel-driving man....

Or so the old folks tell me.

Its hard to believe there ever was such a time when these old men were in their prime, building the railroads alongside John Henry. The sweat on their brow, a prideful stain of a day well worked. A colored man's back baking in the high sun, turning to strike down upon a metal stake; the only revolution they ever need be bothered with. They say they never forgot where they were the day John Henry died. That every time they hear thunder, its him somewhere off in the distance, that the screech of a train as it grinds against the tracks, is the song they used to sing when they worked those long days together. "Noble, humble, and full of righteous power he was; and still is". Once, when I was younger, I tried to argue that John Henry had proved nothing. That he died defeating a machine and it inspired nothing but a fleeting thought that this country was moving too fast. "This world is full of men who think like you", they told me, "a man who dies with hammer still in hand, is a man who deserves to be talked about for ages. Thats a commitment one does not often take, to put his work before his life. He knew he would die that day, we all knew but sometimes a man has to fight for something bigger than himself. He put his race before his pace, and inspired us all young black men, showed us what we had inside us. Told us; that when we commit ourselves, when we put our actions before ourselves, the sky will echo with thunder for years past our time." And so they tell me still to this day, when lightning rolls across the sky, or a train comes into station; John Henry was a steel-driving man.