I must conjure from my past

  the dim and unavowed spectre of a slave,

  of a bound woman, whose bound figure pleads

           silently,

  and whose blood I must acknowledge in my own:  

  fanciful wraith? Imagining?

  Yet how can I reconcile

  my rebel blood and protest

  but by acknowldgement

  of that spectre's mute rebellious blood in me?

  (Originally posted January 31, 2008)