Daisy Bates Poem by Mark Heathcote

Daisy Bates lived in the south in a small sawmill town,
her poor mother, Millie Riley, was sadly murdered
by white men who left her in a millpond at sundown.
When Daisy was an infant 3yrs old being nurtured
By her father, who was later to let her go?
Her adoptive father told the disappointing truth
no one pursued the matter, she being a negro
the police didn't bother; they were of no use.

Daisy naturally wanted vengeance. She wanted-
justice. Later wrote: My life now had a secret goal
to find the men who'd done this evil; she felt haunted
and-justly-she-wanted to punish this infidel.
A man identified as one of her mother's killers,
Daisy would seek the drunkard to stare into his eyes
and belittle the man with her gaze sending shivers
down his wretched spine. So I guess then it's no surprise-

The young man later pleaded with Daisy, 'In the name
of God, please, leave me alone.' He drank himself to death,
found in an alleyway, but that wasn't to be her fame.
She'd battle inequalities with her every breath.
Take on the dragons as editor of Arkansas
State Press, Daisy became a Spokes Person for Civil
Rights issues, contributing articles she foresaw-
a day black and white kids would be free of the devil.

The preachers preaching segregation will lose their battle
and common sense and justice, it'll succeed as it should.
Her heart was filled with hate like a worm within an apple
but she stopped the rot and improved her neighbourhood,
and-furthermore a nation and all its loathsome backwoods
by campaigning and helping make segregated schools illegal,
she-was-singled-out for 'special treatment.' By men in hoods
and two flaming crosses on her property were a prequel-

To more death threats from the KKK. At the base of the cross
was scrawled: 'GO BACK TO AFRICA! KKK.' But thankfully-
the fire was extinguished without further alarms
'In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled with little pageantry
that all segregated schools were unconstitutional
and now had to change. 'Bates died on November 4th,1999.'
She helped remove barriers and moved the unmoveable
and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999.'