Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

The Unthinkable
a cento composed of lines from Clint Smith, The Atlantic, December 2022

We failed to reckon with slavery
prisons are built on former plantations

railcar ghosts smolder
with flesh

America must remember what it did
what it does to black people

Windows must invite the sun upon
weathered steel, stained brown

Blue wildflowers sprout from cracks
think about how someone’s life

relates to your own, names etched
in front of homes, restaurants, schools

churches to mark where enslaved
people were held, sold, killed

We are meant to repair, bring light
to smoke lost in trees and soil

 

Maryann Gremillion: “For years and years I tried to fit in conventional work places that crushed my soul but provided a living. I don’t have to do that anymore! Hurray! I am grateful to have found myself. Writing and art matter.”

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore.