Evie

what we don’t know

by Evelyn H.

we don’t know where he was from,

who his parents were,

his favorite hobby,

his religion,

his favorite food,

or if he could read.

we don’t know what his biggest fear was,

if he had a best friend,

or even how old he was.

we can’t go back in time,

and ask him

all the things we wonder

but can only look at documents and

try to figure out

who Theophilus was.

but,

what we know is

powerful.

we know he was a father,

a husband,

a former slave.

we know about the land he owned,

and who his children were.

we know the facts.

But not all of them.

we will never know everything about Theophilus,

but we do know that Theophilus left a legacy,

that he lived.

Evelyn’s Artist Statement:

While I was researching Theophilus and his story, I noticed that there were so many pieces of his story missing. As I thought about it more, I realized how much we didn’t know about Theophilus and how much we will never know. None of the documents say his favorite color, or food, or his friends. We know a lot of facts about history because of documents and books, but we don’t really know about the people who wrote the documents and I just wanted to convey that feeling of mystery about not knowing much about Theophilus. While I was writing I decided to not use any capital letters except for his name because I wanted to express his importance.