When George Met Humphrey

By Antoinette Brim-Bell
General George Washington is thought to
have rested at [slaveowner] McCurdy’s house
while traveling from Boston to New York in 1776.
Humphrey would have prepared for the distinguished guest.
—Carolyn Wakeman, historian

Washington’s late September blue-grays question
the darkness of this slave’s eyes—
           fury flash-cooled in a deluge of tears turned
           obsidian, edged in bleached eagle talon.
           Humphrey’s eyes only reflect back
           Washington’s war-weary face.
           It is safer this way. A slave is all function
           and no humanity: whispered assent;
           and dust kicked up when he turns on heel—
           two steps ahead to prepare the way;
           two steps behind in his ordained place.
Humphrey is the darkness Washington steps through
on his way inside to the warm hearth
and smells of roasting mutton and root vegetables.

Tonight, Humphrey will bed down in the stable,
fresh from a stint on the sea,
the delicacy of rat meat
and pocketed wild onions pinched between
weevil-flour biscuits still on his tongue.
Notes:

This poem is from “The Witness Stones Project” portfolio that appeared in the November 2021 issue. The authors write about the series and the collaborative process here.

Source: Poetry (November 2021)