solemnly by a lakeside i once sat
upon a hill, teaching myself to pray

it was a not so long ago time
when a feast of fear was normal fair

i happily prayed for days of
ever increasing joy

believing my after would surpass
my grandmother’s before

and so it has
amen.

About this Poem: My grandmother’s grandmother was a slave. Whenever, I consider the life I live and my foremother who could not call her children her own, I am humbled. This poem is for Mariah, a free woman, and my ancestor.