The Second Prayer

Second Prayer
by D.S. Ferguson

The old Woman (Present):

Scene: Actor seated in a rocking chair by a radio which is playing the famous lines near the end of Martin Luther Kings Washington Mall speech “I have a dream”. She turns it gently off and rises to sweep the porch where she sat and begins to talk to herself .


Lord, God, I heard about him today. King. I heard him talk about leading the oppressed out of bondage. The oppressed? At first I had to stop. Yes, yes that was me. The one the masters would lie to, lie about, lie over and in the dark when none could see, lie down with. And that was all that they really needed to do to keep us hostage, wasn’t it? Just Lie. Yes Lord, we had some hard and fast lessons to learn in the masters religion. No families allowed under his GOD. And the whip in his pulpit, made believers of many of us. A shame indeed father, but through all those pains and horrible acts. You’ve kept us, --(me), You’ve kept us all to see this better day.

We've survived the endless hollow hearted pain of lives with no future in which to move forward and no past of which we could look back. Lord, So, bless us tonight for the taskmaster has done his work well. We have survived him lord, but there is still work for us. And now suddenly I see more than the stars in the sky tonight, And I thank you again merciful Father for bringing us through.

They're say'in now we come from, Af-ri-ca, Africa. I don’t know what to make of it lord, I don't know noth'in about it, I don’t remember but it seems as good a place as any to say I started from, yes. It feels good just to say it! Yes, It sounds right good. I come, from Africa. But, I have a lot of questions now that I suspect, only my children will get the answers to, and that’s Ok too. But I need to thank you lord, for letting me see this day. “I laughed with joy when they told me that your young preacher burned up old Lincoln’s front porch and set a fire in that there Washington DC. Yes sir, it felt good to hear that one of our own had done good. I felt so good I brought in two and a half bales of cotton by myself today, yes I did, and I would have brought in ten if it would have gotten me a chance just to see him even from afar lord. Oh just to have heard your servant call out the oppressors name father. Oh, but I am happy just the same. Besides you and I both know that I’d need a heap'in case of Hopp'in Johns after have’in that much excitement. Well It’s almost time for bed, but father I wanted most of all to thank you for that glimpse of what the future may hold for us. I know I won't be around to see it, but it sure feels good to know its coming.

Scene: Actor begins to get up and leave then turns to deliver last line.

The old Woman (Present): “And father please, Bless the young ones who will inherit that future. Let them do well with it.”


Second Prayer was one of three prayers written for a play celebrating African American roots, traditions and history. First Performed in 2004