Blood and Soil

I am the slave master’s

daughter

pulling squares of sugar-coated

bodies

out of black soil

fingering pain -

taking test bites

and shelving them

for harvest

 

skins bound to paper

while I

swing, blue eyes to heaven

bathed in golden light

while brown eyes

are pressed

to the dirt -

my father’s house

their holocaust

 

their blood in soil

feeding the cotton

in my

summer dress,

the peach that wets

my lips-

dripping

sweat, to salt

my memory

 

mother finds

scraps to throw

and calls it

Christian charity

to sow

where father slept -

my dark sister’s

hazel eyes

cast hungry, down

to earth - 

while sugar

swings