poetry: hear iamb in the blood of the bog
“We have to curate spaces that tell the truth.”
— steve núñez, Curating Ghosts: Abolition, US Colored Troops, and the Future of Haunted Memory, Cameron Art Museum “Boundless” Lecture and Conversation Series
where the earthworks shirk intention beneath and absorbing artillery rain cascading
they trail the rivers honor-bound brutal in their militant tenderness
tethered between the dismal and the fear as darkness swallowed dawn eclipsing empire
which leads me to wonder how branch-, battle-, bullet-, blister-carved aching arms and muddy water-treaded boots feel in the peat
onward to the river
there, the mouths of muskets only purge impressionable ammunition aimed carefully by sixteen hundred give or take an entire being’s worth of memories
onward to the river
there, the wise mariners sing wretched incantations
there, they whisper cartographic visions to soldiers learning the rhythms of the shoals keeping time with a wild general carried by the sounds
their blood dried and washed by rain not away merely cycled back into the weathered rock not away
onward to the river
where the earthworks shirk intention beneath and absorbing artillery rain cascading
there, the wraith-anchored echoes flood the cape
“Boundless,” U.S. Colored Troops Memorial, Eleven Life-Sized Bronze Sculptures, Wilmington, Stephen Hayes; Photos of Memorial by steve núñez, Trillosophy Photo.
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