Fishes and Loaves
In Bel
oved, the once-enslaved
[M(ark) this, Cain]
Lived at 124 Bluestone Road
Where the fishes once multiplied
Along with the loaves.
With the excess that we had.
Those in its presence hummed discontent
Is it 1 x 2 = 4
Then 4 x 2 = 8,
Or is it 1 x 2 = 4
Then 4 x 4 = 16?
In America, 388,000 enslaved people
Survived the middle passage
Coming to this country.
In 1860
The slave population numbered
3,953,760.
The first enslaved people
Were divided and multiplied
Like fishes and loaves
To feed the hungry and greedy.
Generational Slavery
Not divided by Him but by her:
1 - 2 - - 4
4 - - - - - - 8
8--------------16
16------------------------------32
32---------------------------------------------------+ 60 million
(and more)
A - - - E
F - - I - - - M
N
O- - - --U
V
W - - Z
- -
I - - -
O Blue stone
Pink stone You
Blue: life - associated why
with abundance perceived as excess.
Consonants cut the vowel sounds
Bringing a pink death
Pink: death - associated with the headstone
Dead baby blue
Dead baby red
Life is blue
While death is red.
Dip into the
|___| |__|__| |___|
Those first people brought over were enslaved
And they multiplied not to be fruitful and revel in the joy.
They were divided and duplicated and forced into the repetitive construct
That profited
124
What happens if we travel the backward path
And revert to that first
Moment
When
Misery
was
mine?
Kearl was only ten when Clara moved into the place
Where he and the others lived.
From that first night when she arrived,
Clara made Kearl uneasy with all that
Wheezing and muttering.
He grew to dislike her greatly because she
Frightened him not only with her looks,
But also with the things she said.
Often, she kept him up half the night
Speaking words he didn't understand or even recognize,
And because she was missing both of her legs
She made an awful noise when
Dragging herself over the floor.
Word had it that a former master
Cut off both of her legs when she'd tried
To run off as a young girl,
But others said she lost them
To a plow in the field.
Both legs were both cut off
Somewhere below the knees,
And Kearl found it
Unsettling to watch her.
Nobody liked her, but she was skilled with her hands,
And she could clean cotton
and quilt blankets
and prepare food,
Which made her an asset to the owner.
She was never friendly, and when she spoke,
It was always puzzling and paradoxical.
Kearl's job included carting Clara over to the barn
Where she could perform her duties,
And it was his job to return her every day.
One afternoon, she said to him,
"If you let the dark chew into you,
You become the dark,
And only then can you bring the light.
You get me?"
"Nome," he said.
She went on to explain herself further:
"What you see ain't real,
And what you touch ain't real.
They ain't told us the truth
Because they don't know it,
But you got the seed in you.
You got the star."
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