Emancipation is a Long Word
Emancipation is a word for a work in progress,
five stretched syllables patient as a long song
hummed then strummed.
It’s a word for a road winding through woods,
a river running north, a star standing still,
a light in a house on a hill.
It’s loud laughter after lament, after four hundred years
of tears drying on white cotton bolls and
sweat dripping into brown sugar crystals.
Emancipation is a word waiting low in tow
to free the inert tongue for motion, positioned
to push air up from two living lungs
up through the throat, out through the teeth to start
the kissing of the schwa vowels and the squeezing of
the suffix spelt t-i-o-n in the Queen’s colonial English.
If there’s commotion when I say, “emancipation,”
I hush my soul quiet—quiet as a lullaby’s last note
and I breathe deeply. Breath by breath
I savour stories, measure meanings and ponder
the pain of the past, the process of the present,
the paths of the future for freedom for all.
Emancipation is a long word.
Meaning and symbolism
Bonita Johnson-deMatteis designed the monument shown in the feature image. She said, “The Church was central to the Black community. The apple trees [planted behind] reflect a sign; follow the apple blossoms and [you] would get north.” The paving stones show replicas of quilt patterns used to guide the freedom seekers.
Thanks for your poem. More, please!