By Sonia Sanchez
1
Picture a woman
riding thunder on
the legs of slavery …
2
Picture her kissing
our spines saying no to
the eyes of slavery …
3
Picture her rotating
the earth into a shape
of lives becoming …
4
Picture her leaning
into the eyes of our
birth clouds …
5
Picture this woman
saying no to the constant
yes of slavery …
6
Picture a woman
jumping rivers her
legs inhaling moons …
7
Picture her ripe
with seasons of
legs … running …
8
Picture her tasting
the secret corners
of woods …
9
Picture her saying:
You have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion
to reach for the stars,
to change the world …
10
Imagine her words:
Every great dream begins
with a dreamer …
11
Imagine her saying:
I freed a thousand slaves,
could have freed
a thousand more if they
only knew they were slaves …
12
Imagine her humming:
How many days we got
fore we taste freedom …
13
Imagine a woman
asking: How many workers
for this freedom quilt …
14
Picture her saying:
A live runaway could do
great harm by going back
but a dead runaway
could tell no secrets …
15
Picture the daylight
bringing her to woods
full of birth moons …
16
Picture John Brown
shaking her hands three times saying:
General Tubman. General Tubman. General Tubman.
17
Picture her words:
There’s two things I got a
right to: death or liberty …
18
Picture her saying no
to a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin:
I am the real thing …
19
Picture a Black woman:
could not read or write
trailing freedom refrains …
20
Picture her face
turning southward walking
down a Southern road …
21
Picture this woman
freedom bound … tasting a
people’s preserved breath …
22
Picture this woman
of royalty … wearing a crown
of morning air …
23
Picture her walking,
running, reviving
a country’s breath …
24
Picture black voices
leaving behind
lost tongues …
Source: Poetry (April 2018)
Poet Bio
More Poems about Activities
Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam
I will tell you why she rarely ventured from her house.
It happened like this:
One day she took the train to Boston,
made her way to the darkened room,
put her name down in cursive script
and waited her turn.
When they read her name...
Fairy Tale with Laryngitis and Resignation Letter
You remember the mermaid makes a deal,
her tongue evicted from her throat,
and moving is a knife-cut with every step.
This is what escape from water means.
Dear Colleagues, you write, for weeks
I’ve been typing this letter in the bright
kingdom of my imagination....
More Poems about Relationships
Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam
I will tell you why she rarely ventured from her house.
It happened like this:
One day she took the train to Boston,
made her way to the darkened room,
put her name down in cursive script
and waited her turn.
When they read her name...
Altered After Too Many Years Under the Mask
I feel you
...
More Poems about Social Commentaries
Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam
I will tell you why she rarely ventured from her house.
It happened like this:
One day she took the train to Boston,
made her way to the darkened room,
put her name down in cursive script
and waited her turn.
When they read her name...
For the Feral Splendor That Remains
sometimes I strain
...