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