Juneteenth
Juneteenth
By Peter Neil Carroll
In memory of P. Sterling Stuckey
He was tall, built vertical,
lean, lips thin, taut, seldom
flashed his gentle smile
to remind you (and himself)
that he was on to something big,
that would surprise you, something
of sudden insight, breaking a code.
And when the moment came,
clear, truthful—
the story of the Ring Shout,
the counterclockwise dance,
little bits of burial glass,
the antique vision that traveled
back to Africa, forward to
the monotonous cotton—
he could praise the secret deity,
he had found the key.
Peter Neil Carroll's latest collections of poetry are This Land, These People which won the Prize Americana and Sketches from Spain: Homage to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.