Luce
Baptized 1741
Luce, the enslaved
servant of Richard
Demings, was baptized
with Elizabeth Greenfield,
whom Demings had been
seen molesting in 1734,
at the age of 10
Everybody knows. Lots of our people
call me “Loose Luce” and laugh behind my back.
I wasn’t here then, and he’s repented
for the times he touched those little white girls.
But when I say who owns me, eyebrows rise.
That’s why the Demings settled here in Lyme:
swept by a fierce current of gossip.
That’s why his wife sleeps in a separate bed.
Elizabeth was only ten years old
when Susanna caught Master in the act
of forcing her to show him her privates,
and told Reverend Parsons what she had seen.
The church made Master publicly confess
and pray for forgiveness. And that was years
before the Demings bought and brought me here.
Her shaming had nothing to do with me.
Elizabeth’s twenty now, same as me.
Her name marks her like my steeped-tea brown skin.
When our eyes met when we were introduced,
I felt her loneliness. Did she feel mine?
She and I were among fifteen baptized
last Sunday. Reborn in the sacrament,
the Reverend says; welcomed and healed by love.
What if you can’t forgive your trespassers?
Notes:
This poem is from “The Witness Stones Project” portfolio that appeared in the November 2021 issue. The authors write about the series and the collaborative process here.
Source: Poetry (November 2021)