I believe that white lady meant well, but she took liberties with my story. There was a pint, and I am a woman, but I never did bear thirteen young. There was an audience, and I did stand. At first, hesitant, but then, speaking God’s clear consonants in a voice that all might hear, not with apostrophes feeding on
sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox
sign up
occasions
Chorus of the Mothers-Griot
for Phillis Wheatley (c.1753-1784)
[amnesiac wood]
[nostrils of girls] [who was bought] [uncle’s hand]
[guts on the air] [who was sold] [defeated man]
[history’s charnel] [i say] [trader’s silver]
[sailing knot to knot]
[naked in the corner] [door of no return] [sing the mutiny]
[in the slave house] [sniff bougainvillea] [who stands ashamed]
[i say] [ready dawn’s kill] [naked in the corner]
[jealous sharks]
[i shall] [who did] [i say]
[they did] [i’m here] [my name]
[who shall] [i say] [yes here]
[on the battlefield]
[call woman] [call america] [call revolution]
[call the brother] [call myth] [i say]
[call the auction] [call africa] [call revolution]
[in God’s name]
[is this called] [is my mother] [is my kin]
[i say] [is this called] [is some land]
[is my mother] [and what] [is this called]
after Lucille Clifton
Copyright © 2014 by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on February 10, 2014. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
Copyright © 2014 by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on February 10, 2014. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is the author of the poetry collections The Glory Gets (Wesleyan University Press, 2015); Red Clay Suite (Southern Illinois University Press, 2007); Outlandish Blues (Wesleyan University Press, 2003); and The Gospel of Barbecue (The Kent State University Press, 2000), which was selected by Lucille Clifton for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize.