after Janneth Mornan-Green

what school was selling

she refused to learn

by rote

during history classes

she sailed the Atlantic Ocean

with Europeans

captive

in her boat

He would throw her 

                   across the room. 

Some men make sport of such things.

I was warned to see and blind.

Still, I watched through the window

how her children, forced into a ritual

dandy shandy, dodged their wailing mother.

The day she heaved the pot from the stove,

a drought ended in Pell River.

Colin             a cumulus of steam              screamed.

Behind the bamboo fence