Poem-a-Day - "Sojourned." by Nabila Lovelace

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August 14, 2024 
 

Sojourned.

Nabila Lovelace

            I did not run away
            I walked away by daylight
      
                         —Sojourner Truth

The hour  I  ran  out
on   my   bondage   I
didn’t                  run.
The        sun       was
Shining        in     its
Sunday’s           best,
beating its coat
on   my   coat.   This
heat   produced  my
sweat,    not      swift
feet.   My      haircut,
new.    &     my    hat
wore ribbons
fit        a          church
frontrow.  A   day  so
ordinary who  could
guess
what       I      walked
away    from?    How
could   I   be  anyone
but me,
with   my   name   in
my  teeth?   My  feet
gliding  under   each
detective’s   lowered
brim.    The   bounty
on my head
higher    than   hawk
circles.

The  night I walked
out   on  my  master
is  when   I   learned
I  was   serving  one.
The    same     molar
chiding  my  cheeks
a   mole    engorging
silence.    My     first
spy   the    dream  in
my
brain    entrenching
ownership.   I spent
12,000              treks
thinking my
moves   were     my
own  until   I  found
road stretching out
of  a  forest I hadn’t
even    seen    grow.
When I arrived
at    the     brush   &
flatland    I     knew
where   I had   been
had  not  been mine,
but   a  life   for   my
first love.    The first
who      gave        my
selfness   a    ceiling.
How  could   I  have
not     chosen      my
maker before
choosing myself?

The night I walked
out  on   my  master
wasn’t night
at    all.     Freedom
made the day
ordinary  in  a   new
way.   How    for    a
fish water is never
new,  just  a  change
between       bodies.
But if      a       child
exits
my  chute  gravity is
law,      &        down
becomes                 a
direction.
The first time my
feet touched floor I
learned the bottom.
After,
I  took  my  legs  &
forged      a       path
between  a  past   &
Jupiter.
Now    time     can’t
touch   me   &   I’m
where     water     is
always fresh
though  it pains like
we do.   Where pine
trees grow w/ no
hunting   season   is
where I am headed.
A  compass  w/   no
map   is   the   stars.
Find your way.  If  I
told       you        the
address
It  wouldn’t   be   a
secret.

Copyright © 2024 by Nabila Lovelace. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 14, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“When the man who thought he owned her said that Sojourner Truth ran away, her response was: ‘I did not run away / I walked away by daylight.’ I walked far and long with these words from Truth. I read the quote to anyone willing and unwilling to listen—my students, my friends, my monstera plant, my furniture. When I told my Mama this quote she reflected on the daylight [and] said, ‘She knew she was in the right.’ My mother’s words and Truth’s words woke me up at 4:00 a.m.—the hour for poems, the hour for ghosts. I am grateful to have answered the call; I am grateful to have been a vessel. Thank you.”
—Nabila Lovelace

Nabila Lovelace

Nabila Lovelace is a Black, first-generation Queens-born poet whose family is originally from Trinidad and Nigeria. The author of Sons of Achilles (YesYes Books, 2018), she lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Sons of Achilles

Sons of Achilles
(YesYes Books, 2018)

“Sojourner” by Marie-Ovide Dorcely
read more
“The White Iris Beautifies Me” by Cyrus Cassells
read more

Thanks to Danez Smith, author of Bluff (Graywolf Press, 2024), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Smith’s curatorial approach and find out more about our Guest Editors for the year.
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