"Haiku and Tanka for Harriet Tubman," by Sonia Sanchez

Picture a woman
riding thunder on
the legs of slavery ...

Picture her kissing
our spines saying no to
the eyes of slavery ...

Picture her rotating
the earth into a shape
of lives becoming ...

Picture her leaning
into the eyes of our
birth clouds ...

Picture this woman
saying no to the constant
yes of slavery ...

Picture a woman
jumping rivers her
legs inhaling moons ...

Picture her ripe
with seasons of
legs ... running ...

Picture her tasting
the secret corners
of woods ...

Picture her saying:
You have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion
to reach for the stars,
to change the world ...

Imagine her words:
Every great dream begins
with a dreamer ...

Imagine her saying:
I freed a thousand slaves,
could have freed
a thousand more if they
only knew they were slaves ...

Imagine her humming:
How many days we got
fore we taste freedom ...

Imagine a woman
asking: How many workers
for this freedom quilt ...

Picture her saying:
A live runaway could do
great harm by going back
but a dead runaway
could tell no secrets ...

Picture the daylight
bringing her to woods
full of birth moons ...

Picture John Brown
shaking her hands three times saying:
General Tubman. General Tubman. General Tubman.

Picture her words:
There’s two things I got a
right to: death or liberty ...

Picture her saying no
to a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin:
I am the real thing ...

Picture a Black woman:
could not read or write
trailing freedom refrains ...

Picture her face
turning southward walking
down a Southern road ...

Picture this woman
freedom bound ... tasting a
people’s preserved breath ...

Picture this woman
of royalty ... wearing a crown
of morning air ...

Picture her walking,
running, reviving
a country’s breath ...

Picture black voices
leaving behind
lost tongues ...

+ Sonia Sanchez