Waiting on the mayflower (2006)

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Poetry

“what, to the american slave, is your 4th of july?”—frederick douglass


i.  august 1619


arrived in a boat, named

and unnamed, twenty, pirated


away from a portuguese

slaver, traded for victuals.


drowned in this land of fresh,

volatile clearings and folk


with skin like melted

cowrie shells. soon shedding


servitude. soon reaping

talents sown on african soil.


after indenture, christians,

colonists. not english, but


not yet not-white. antoney

and isabella, whose marriage


stretched the short shadows

of america’s early afternoon


into the dusky reaches of evening,

whose conjugal coitus spent


first the choice coin of africa

on rough virginian citizenship,


baptized their son, william,

into the church of england.


ii.  december 1638

fear must have shuddered

into boston on the backs


of true believersmen and

women of an unadorned god


deep in the heavy black fabric

of their coats and dresses like


a stench. black a mark of

pride they wore as if branded,


never dreaming they could

take it off. envy anticipated


their advent. glittered at them,

settling in, from the knife


blades of the massachusetts.

seeped like low-pitched


humming from the fur

lining the natives’ warm


blankets. but desire docked

in 1638. in from the harbor


flocked a people whose eyes

sparked like stars, even near


death. whose hair promised

a mixture of cotton and river


water and vines, a texture

the fingers ached for. who


wholly inhabited a skin the

midnight color of grace


that clarified the hue of the

pilgrims’ woolen weeds. fear


and envy claimed pride of place,

put desire’s cargo to good use.


iii.  march 1770

that night, crispus attucks

dreamed. how he’d attacked


his would-be master and fled

in wild-eyed search of self-


determination. discarded

virginia on the run and ran


out of breath in salt-scented

boston. found there, if not


freedom, fearlessness. a belief

in himself that rocked things


with the uncontrolled power

of the muscular atlantic, power


to cradle, to capsize. awoke

angry again at the planter


who’d taken him for a mule

or a machine. had shouldered


a chip the size of concord

by the time the redcoat dared


to dare him. died wishing he’d

amassed such revolutionary


ire in virginia. died dreaming

great britain was the enemy.


iv.  july 4th: last

     but not least

17-, 18-, 19-76 and still

this celebration’s shamed


with gunpowder and words

that lie like martyrs in cold


blood. africa’s descendents,

planting here year after year


the seeds of labor, sweating

bullets in this nation’s warts,


have harvested the rope,

the rape, the ghetto, the cell,


the fire, the flood, and the

blame for you-name-it. so


today black folks barbeque

ribs and smother the echoes


of billie’s strange song in

sauces. drink gin. gladly


holiday to heckle speeches

on tv. pretend to parade.


turn out in droves for distant

detonations, chaos, controlled


as always, but directed

away from us tonight. stare


into the mirror of the sky

at our growing reflection,


boggled by how america

gawks at the passing pinpoints


of flame, but overlooks the vast,

ebony palm giving them shape.

(Evie Shockley, Source: a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006))

Author

Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Evie Shockley, an author, received a BA from Northwestern University, a JD from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from Duke University in English literature. Shockley is also the author of many poetry collections, including the Half-Red Sea (2006) and the New Black (2011), and of the critical volume Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Creativity in African American Poetry (2011). In many anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook (2010), A Broken Thing: Contemporary Poets on the Line, her poetry and essays have been featured (2011), and Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon (2013).

Racism Issue

This poem criticizes the segregation and slavery committed by white people against blacks since the era of colonialism.

Reference

  1. Shockley, Evie. Waiting on the Mayflower. Poetry Foundation.
  2. Evie Shockley Biography. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved January 1 2020.