RUNNING
http://www.maverickmagazine.com/articles/249/1/RUNNING/Page1.html
Herbert Woodward Martin
Herbert Woodward Martin has been The University of Dayton's poet-in-residence for over two decades. Martin has published four books of poetry and a monograph on Paul Laurence Dunbar. He is currently seeking a publisher for a book-length collection of poems about people with AIDS and a long series of poems called "Final W" about his mother dying from cancer. His poems have been published in academic publications and such national magazines as Poetry and the George Washington Review. By Herbert Woodward Martin
Published on 10/6/2003
They tell me that
If a slave ran away
He or she had to
Be quick like dusk,
Able to hide
Under a multitude
of deceptive shades.
If a slave ran away
He or she had to
Be quick like dusk,
Able to hide
Under a multitude
of deceptive shades.
They tell me that
If a slave ran away
He or she had to
Be quick like dusk,
Able to hide
Under a multitude
of deceptive shades.
I imagine their flight
Must have been something
like a hummingbird's
Perpetual motion seeking
The sweet release of
Freedom, but never
Allighting for more than
The single moment
It takes to drink nectar
Then with calculateable
Suddenness moving on
Moving on before dawn
Could capture them again.
Copyright © Herbert Woodward Martin, 2003. All Rights Reserved.
If a slave ran away
He or she had to
Be quick like dusk,
Able to hide
Under a multitude
of deceptive shades.
I imagine their flight
Must have been something
like a hummingbird's
Perpetual motion seeking
The sweet release of
Freedom, but never
Allighting for more than
The single moment
It takes to drink nectar
Then with calculateable
Suddenness moving on
Moving on before dawn
Could capture them again.
Copyright © Herbert Woodward Martin, 2003. All Rights Reserved.