Sunday, May 01, 2011

Shane McCrae [Part Two]

from THE AWAKENING OF SOLOMON NORTHUP: 2. IN DARKNESS




Woke for the first     time in my life

chained     aching woke in darkness

Woke in a dark my eyes

Couldn’t adjust to woke

chained to a ring in the floor

Head aching     chained in a dark room

And hearing footsteps voices

overhead     I realized

The room was underground

Woke     and at first I couldn’t

Remember how I came     to be in the room     and after I

After remembering the men     who ran the circus the

Two white men who     with whom

I had been traveling

Remembered but I couldn’t understand

remembered only

Eagerness     kindness in their faces

As they handed me the money I had earned

And kindness in their faces as they left me for the night

And woke in darkness was

In darkness for     hours and no one came

I felt my way

around the room I found

The ring in the floor remembered

but I couldn’t understand I     felt my way around

Crawling     and in the darkness

I after a while     couldn’t be sure

My eyes were open



Shane McCrae is the author of Mule (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and two chapbooks, One Neither One (Octopus Books, 2009) and In Canaan (Rescue Press, 2010). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Best American Poetry 2010FenceAgniDenver QuarterlyTypo, and others.