Haiku and Tanka for Harriet Tubman
1
Picture a woman
riding thunder on
the legs of slavery ...
2
Picture her kissing
our spines saying no to
the eyes of slavery ...
3
Picture her rotating
the earth into a shape
of lives becoming ...
4
Picture her leaning
into the eyes of our
birth clouds ...
5
Picture this woman
saying no to the constant
yes of slavery ...
6
Picture a woman
jumping rivers her
legs inhaling moons ...
7
Picture her ripe
with seasons of
legs ... running ...
8
Picture her tasting
the secret corners
of woods ...
9
Picture her saying:
You have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion
to reach for the stars,
to change the world ...
10
Imagine her words:
Every great dream begins
with a dreamer ...
11
Imagine her saying:
I freed a thousand slaves,
could have freed
a thousand more if they
only knew they were slaves ...
12
Imagine her humming:
How many days we got
fore we taste freedom ...
13
Imagine a woman
asking: How many workers
for this freedom quilt ...
14
Picture her saying:
A live runaway could do
great harm by going back
but a dead runaway
could tell no secrets ...
15
Picture the daylight
bringing her to woods
full of birth moons ...
16
Picture John Brown
shaking her hands three times saying:
General Tubman. General Tubman. General Tubman.
17
Picture her words:
There’s two things I got a
right to: death or liberty ...
18
Picture her saying no
to a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin:
I am the real thing ...
19
Picture a Black woman:
could not read or write
trailing freedom refrains ...
20
Picture her face
turning southward walking
down a Southern road ...
21
Picture this woman
freedom bound ... tasting a
people’s preserved breath ...
22
Picture this woman
of royalty ... wearing a crown
of morning air ...
23
Picture her walking,
running, reviving
a country’s breath ...
24
Picture black voices
leaving behind
lost tongues ...
Source: Poetry (April 2018)