Poem for the Inauguration

[susanstinson]

This is a poem I've just written, which I plan to read at the open poetry reading at the Yellow Sofa in Northampton Tuesday, 1/20/09. The reading starts at 6:30 pm.




Building the House
for President Barack Obama

Sir, I come from slave owners.
Centuries back, our people
moved south from New England with slaves.

I have fought the feelings of knowing
that traffic in persons undergirded so much
from so early    for so long.

Still, history insists on itself
with the brush of my grandmother’s curls at my neck
and blood people of unstinting love who make me every day.

You, who carry varied histories,
carry a heavy piece of wood,
not to the fire we used to say in our family
had burned all the records,

(I’ve seen how, in New England, historians
copying the old account books left out
columns headed with the word slaves)

not to the fire,
but to rebuild the house.

I carry a piece of wood.
I do my work, as I know you will work,
that houses made of fire,
made of sawing, made of wood,
that houses made of time
stand ready for us all.


January 10-15, 2009