From the train to the canopy,
This quest sounds like a plan to me.
The vision is for man to see.
YAH paved the way.
So my hand is free!
Traveling faster than a moving van,
We’ll pass by Powhatan
where Queen Kay raised hers on county land,
While our Mama J reared 5 on a street
of the same name.
This similarity didn’t even bother to intersect
until my mother and father began to connect.
There is a clear picture seen in Rosewater.
Was it the journey of Jerusalem’s daughter that caught her?
Bags packed, head wrapped, Bible strapped,
These queens don’t look stuck to me.
What a sight beheld by Ms. Huckaby!
A delightful delegation
departing from Main Street Station.
After tracking our tracks through the ocean,
She can see that Love has us coasting….

In the middle ground, far to the left
In a classy gown, Granny thinks to herself
as she looks beyond,
seeing The Hand of Heaven respond.
In front of the pond,
one Grandma dances to the dawn.
Beside one woman’s meditation
is another’s celebration….
And Queen Dorothy conducts with such authority,
She can stay seated on her stool
and still cause us to rise.
Each lens is just a tool,
knowing her mind has eyes.
And her flight is no surprise
cause she’s clothed with butterflies,
waiting on wooden wings….
watching what transformation really brings….
So they’ve all arrived
Seeing the tree come alive!

And we may not witness
each stage a tree grows or which way the wind may flow,
But there is that in which some do know,
Family meeting family is a win though.
It was eventful seeing Aunt Addie
look out her window.
Even our years carry tears…
And yet I replaced her Kleenex
with The Clean Text
because The Word binds us to The Best
and prepares us for what is next.
From the station near Richmond’s auction block
to Kakum National Park,
Our decision to embark will create a spark!
Our nanas are nurturing a new passion for home in our hearts
So we will never want to stay apart.
Yes the contrast of being here and there is stark,
But helping us to see the light
Is the mission of a M.A.T.R.I.A.R.C.H.
So this acronym will never be a mystery,
These letters are
Mothers Aspiring To Reap Inspiration After Reading Creation’s History.

-

Author: Jeromyah Jones

Email: jsevenjones@gmail.com

Jeromyah Jones is a visual artist, poet, and a graduate of Hampton University in America. Jones's 3 feet x 4 feet oil painting and poem, “M.A.T.R.I.A.R.C.H: Nurturing our Tracks,” is the latest composition he has completed in his Visions of A New Migration series. This collection shows what it would look like if descendants of the diaspora truly decided to return to the continent of our ancestors.

M.A.T.R.I.A.R.C.H shows a futuristic journey from The Main Street Station in Richmond, VA, to Ghana and the wealth in having the wisdom of the older women guide us along the way. 2024 is the 405th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans forced to America, and Jones is using this painting and poem to highlight the harmonious depiction of African Americans returning home.