Folklore
Y’all heard the one where the Africans flew
off the plantation?
Ever bed-and-breakfast at Chesapeake Bay, ghost
walk Greenbriar Swamp to hear tale of “Big Liz,”
the “heavyset” woman whose neck ate a sword
after her slaver made her stir inside his jewelry chest?
Did Gran warn you about letting Boo Hags ride?
They’ll deglove your skin unless you paint
your doorframe haint blue, wear your husk
on a D.C. “Boos and Booze” pub crawl.
Any toothaches signed by the Candyman?
Y’all must know the Candyman. Fooled
with a blonde, then a lynch mob sawed his arm off.
Dunked his stump in honeycomb.
Have you and your sisters kept the roots
High John the Conqueror left?
Did you hide the trick bag Anansi gave us
beneath the beds of your tongues?
Martheaus Perkins is a first-generation college graduate and the son of a single Black mother. He is the author of The Grace of Black Mothers, a debut poetry collection through Trio House Press. He lives and teaches in Fairfax, VA. His name is a collection of each woman who helped raise him: “Mar-” was his grandmother, “-Thea-” is his mother’s name, and “-us” represents his two aunties who created the name.
Image: Pickering, E. H., creator, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
