DC PLACES ISSUE E. Ethelbert Miller   ELIZABETH KECKLEY: 30 YEARS A SLAVE AND 4 YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE tall man lincoln looking out the windows of this white house.  i wonder what he's thinking.  the war not far from here.  men dying.  death trying to get indoors.  i rise before his wife asks for anything.  all the dresses i make, everthing i touch is black. sometimes i can't tell the difference between war and slavery.  i do my work and only forget what i don't care to remember.  lincoln is not well, he looks old.  his wife calls his name every night.  it's me who holds her hand after he leaves.  she talks to me like i'm a ghost and not a colored woman. E. Ethelbert Miller is the chair of the board of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University. His last book was How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love. Published in Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 2006.   To read more by this author: E. Ethelbert Miller Miller's Tribute to Sterling Brown: The Memorial Issue E. Ethelbert Miller: The Wartime Issue E. Ethelbert Miller on Ed Cox: The Profiles Issue E. Ethelbert Miller: Evolving City Issue E. Ethelbert Miller: Split This Rock Issue E. Ethelbert Miller: Langston Hughes Tribute Issue