SHANE MCCRAE
CHILDREN
Was married but the Master kept me pregnant
Robert my husband knew he knew
The girls weren’t his / Samuel wasn’t his
But Thomas was the oldest was
Robert and I were still children ourselves / Robert
was fifteen I was sixteen when
Thomas was born
Except no nigger ever was a child
Was when before my
father my / First master sold the farm
And Robert even
then he always did a grown man’s work
Except no nigger ever was grown
And Robert he / Wanted me more
With every child that wasn’t his / And he
with every child that wasn’t his
loved Thomas less
And when I went after the boys / After Priscilla
with the shovel
To save them from the Master
I hit Thomas the hardest
+++
WITH THE INFANT MARY GARNER'S BODY IN HIS ARMS
And carried her her body back / On horseback back he
tried to carry her
Mary’s body back / Across the river
Through Covington to Maplewood
Wanted to carry her argued with the other slave
Catchers he tried
the Master tried to argue
wanted
To argue carry her and wouldn’t give
her body to the coroner / Not
right away but sat down
on the porch
Sobbing and
Choking on words the others / His
neighbors and the marshals
couldn’t understand
As Mary’s blood
Dried on his forearms
Tangled the hairs together
+++
MARGARET GARNER IN CANAAN LAND
My father once took me across the river
To Cincinnati I was seven not
My father but my master on the ferry
and the lawyer says / I could have claimed my freedom then
White men in Cincinnati
would have fought to make me free
Lawyers like him
And I was seven had a woman’s hands my hands
Were small and used to work my father’s wife
would never do / Were
like my mother’s hands
in the moment he lifted me to the roof of the bus
To sit me next to the driver
part of me ached
And as we drove the faces
of the white men in the street
All blurred together just below my feet /
I thought they would
trample me if I fell