1919 by Eve L. Ewing

Author:Eve L. Ewing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2019-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

this is a map

Samuel Bass, on account of the street-car strike, was walking the five and one-half miles from his work to his home when a gang of white men knocked him down three times, and cut gashes in his nose and cheeks with their shoes. Bass hid behind freight cars till a Jewish peddler took him in his cart to State Street. A doctor was visited, but when he learned that Bass had no money, he turned him away without treatment. (659)

this is a map of my city

here are the places in my city where I dare not go

here is where the electric wires gave out and here

is where I still had to make it home,

and here is the first mile, where I whistled

the way my granny taught me, to keep away the haints

and here is where a baby waved to me from a window

and here is the second mile, where I heard the calls,

and on this map there is no third mile

in this, my city, where I first prayed to die,

and then, hearing a single cardinal over the din of their threats,

changed my mind, and prayed to live,

and this is a map of my neighbor’s city

where he traces a way through the mud each day,

the squeal of old wood on iron heralding his arrival,

a king of the streets, a conquering hero of nowhere, and

this is a map of my body

this is the blood of my rivers

this is the bruise of my marshland

this is the sinew of my furthest ridge, and

this is a map of the railroad.

and if I could stand and walk I could make it all the way back

to my granny, pinching snuff and humming

and if she looked up she would say boy, my baby

where you been all this time

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