Tabby Walls | Teen Ink

Tabby Walls

June 20, 2013
By mreatts BRONZE, New City, New York
mreatts BRONZE, New City, New York
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Scratched marks, carve carve carve away
don't need to escape but need to
whittle down the walls, grind them down to their bones
crumble them with the weight of our words;
(Profound/inane) chisel deep carve deep for your mothers
for your mothers your brothers your fathers your you's
Let it not stand enshrined: we will not let this go by
carve deep 'til it cannot stand straight --
We'll stand straight.


The author's comments:
This poem is an ekphrasis that was inspired by an image of carved modern graffiti on the "tabby" walls of slave huts on the Kingsley Plantation in Florida... (I can't seem to find the image right now though).

Thank you for reading.

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