My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 83

By
COLLEEN
McELROY
5.
Jackson and Perry Lee rode through flatlands
where hills and burial mounds etched the sky
wood sparrows darted among canopies of cottonwoods
meadow flowers flamed colors in the tall grass
coyotes kept their distance and the wind never let up
they were stopped at the Kansas border
because they resembled a negro man on a wanted poster
some old gun slinger like Isom Dart
or worse some lawman sure their features spoke
of Indian roots: the eagle-like nose and dark eyes
watching silent and the lawman ready to prove
to the town he’d have none of the likes of them
even homesteaders wanted them to move on quickly
6.

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Jackson cut his brother’s hair and tied back his own
to smudge the familiar Indian-ness at first glance
they ran out of underground markers ran out of safe
houses that would send them to the next town
where post riders or the telegraph passed through
still the air was clear of sudden fires and gun powder smells
lingering those long years after the war in southern fields
they were out in open country when they found the sod house
empty despite the covered well and twig broom by the door
the place looked lost as if no soul had ever wandered there
a rabbit disappeared like quicksilver through a hole
and white butterflies swirled around the grinding stone
in one corner a grain basket slumped of its own weight
they looked for signs to say how recent ma’am had been there
truth was their mother’s people had to keep moving
same as anyone wandering that side of the Mason-Dixon