Ms. Truth

At the age of 46,
a woman called Isabella Baumfree
was reborn from the cold rivers
and hard soil of Ulster County
by orders of her god.

Strange to some, her way
to love this god
was to love people,
caring for others,
lifting bodies broken
by hard toil and whippings,
bringing them to her ear,
against the cushion of her cheek,
saying in her baritone embrace,
You are loved.
You are free.

Traveling and speaking
over and over,
Ain't I a woman?
I have born thirteen children,
most of them
sold into slavery,
cried out with a mother's grief.
She told it to Susan B. Anthony,
to Frederick Douglass,
Ain't I a human?

I would write it for you
but your name
is already a poem.