There were people in my family have witnessed

The greatest changes of America

and lived to tell it. This is about a girl who didn’t live

Long enough to truly be helpful in the world but

helped in death. Even today she still lives on in our

hearts.

Denise McNair, the youngest of the group, finally

Had permission to sit with her friends in the middle

Row instead of being in the front. Unlike her Mother,

Maxine McNair, she grew fond of church for its

blind optimism for the world but had no idea

That soon she would be betrayed by it in God’s house.

All they remember was a flash of crimson light,

an explosion, and screams.

All Maxine could think was where was her daughter, calling

All through clouds of dust and blood.

All she found, a ballerina shoe scorched in rubble.

The depressing rage she felt was like a tsunami

drowning everything in sight. The riots occurring

after the bombing were on a large scale and earned a

Name that echoed through history,

The Bombing of Birmingham.

That part of our family tree still smolders in anger cause of

The aflame, glowing branch at the foot of the tree.