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I need
by Mason W.
I am owned,
I haven’t any rights.
I have worked for my entire life,
My mother was the unlucky one.
I am like an ox,
Working all day for something I won't benefit from.
Receiving just enough to live,
And work for the next day.
I am turning fourteen,
I think.
I know I’m past ten.
My sisters frolic around the field with me,
Always running past the rock
Even though the master yells at us.
I want to feel the water in the stream,
Clear as day, clear as the twinkle in Haile’s eye.
She sees the frogs hop around,
She insists to try it,
Leap frog is her favorite.
Across the stream is a family of deer.
I watch them with Phoebe when we go to the pump.
I see them walk through the woods,
They’re perfect,
Undisturbed,
Free.
I tell her our family will be like them,
One day after the wrongs are righted.
She looks at me funny and says:
I don’t wanna be a deer.
I want to join them.
I think of jumping the wall and not stopping,
Not after the screams,
Not after the laws are passed,
Not after the death I’ve witnessed.
Only after the reaper drops his scythe,
Cutting the cross our mother tried to bestow upon us,
And coming to my loves.
I know this will come,
I know they can’t come,
So it keeps me.
Ball and a loose chain,
Giving some hope,
But tightening in the end.
It’s illogical anyway,
No food,
No money,
No sympathy from anyone.
Our hill is less known by the common man,
Only family comes.
I am mostly the errand boy,
So when the family reunion happens,
We work.
We work the most.
They treat me like I’m a machine,
A non-stop servant that doesn’t need food, water, or rest.
Slaves and servants.
Is that enough from us?
You wanted our rights,
You got them.
You wanted our service,
You got it.
You wanted everything,
You got most of it.
But we hold on to something,
I hold on to something.
I hold on to hope, to faith, to those I love.
And they hold on to me,
So I can't run,
Because I know I would be taking the hope, the faith,
The love.
Because of People Like Her
I didn’t know my grandmother for too long.
Well, technically I knew her for ten years,
But I barely remember anything before five,
And she lived in Boston and only came to us once or twice a year.
Also ten years compared to a 102 is not a lot.
But my parents knew her, and that’s all I need to know she was a great person.
She’s from my dad’s side,
And she was the only grandparent I had from that side.
Her sister died when I was young,
And my dad’s dad died before I was born.
She had three children, my dad, his twin, and my aunt.
And they have some really interesting stories about her.
She was born in 1915 in rural Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
At the age of four or five, she started school in a one-room schoolhouse.
The one-room schoolhouse contained children of all ages in that one room.
The children were all African-American,
Negroes at the time,
And they came from her small farming community.
Her Cousin Tracey even was the principal at the school.
English was her favorite subject and she loved to write.
She was easily the smartest student in the school,
Since she was such a good student,
Her teacher gave her more and more responsibility in the classroom.
She taught classes at the age of nine or ten.
She graduated high school at the age of fifteen.
She graduated college at the age of eighteen.
And she was one of the first African American women to attend college.
She went to Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical (A & M) College and graduated magna cum laude with a double major in English and Chemistry.
The college's land was given by the Morrill Land-Grant Acts.
She helped people her entire life,
But she also struggled her entire life because of racism.
She was alive for the Jim Crow laws, so she had a hard time moving up in the world.
But she persevered like other strong willed and determined people.
I loved my grandmother and enjoyed every second with her.
I have many wonderful memories with her.
Learning about the things we’re learning in history is crucial knowledge,
And I connected with this work especially,
Because I’m passionate about this,
And because of people like her,
My life doesn’t have to be as hard as hers.
Author’s Statement
For my first poem, my intention was to make a non offensive fictional story in poem form about a boy and his sisters who are living an enslaved life in New England and can’t do anything about it. For my second poem, my intention was to tell the story of my grandmother who lived in the deep south. In the first, I achieved my desired effect by not making any huge assumptions about the life of an enslaved family, and layering personal details along with details around them and their situation. In the second, I achieved my desired effect by listing details of her life when I knew her and before, but her life is moving and desired my effect on its own. In the first poem, I hope people will remember what enslaved people with no way of escaping hold on to, and live for. In the second poem, I hope people will remember my grandmother's moving life and appreciate the work that people did for us so we could live free. In the first poem, the historical knowledge was tied in by getting facts and creating a fictional character based on the people of the time. And the challenge was not to make too many assumptions, and make sure not to be offensive. In the second poem, the historical knowledge was tied in by sharing facts about her life and historical things that were happening at the time. And the challenge was getting all the facts of her life. I had to go to many family members, just as we had to go to a lot of sources for Lettuce’s story.
Mason's art project depicts some of the Witness Stones memorials that have been installed to honor people who were enslaved in our local communities. Lettuce's Witness Stones memorial is the first one to be installed in Madison.
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