Descendant
By M. Anne Sweet
I.
I am Mirabel
Mirabel Anne
descend’d from Hannibal Hamlin
Maine senator selected
Abe Lincoln’s first VP
On this day my mother Mirabel
her thin skin torn
bandage bled through
cannot contain the pain
We are white
I am white feckless freckl’d
I yearn for Hannibal
swarthy-skinned
anti-slavery
politics sway’d against him
I do not yearn
for Lincoln’s second VP
Andrew Johnson
I do not yearn
for Johnson’s drunken inaugural
I do not yearn
for John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre
on Good Friday night
I do not yearn
for Johnson’s Confederate amnesties
for black blister’d skin beatings
for syphilis untend’d
I yearn for Hannibal
for what President Hannibal Hamlin
might have said
Rest assured with the assistance of Providence
I would be true to the great principles of justice to all men,
as well as equality to all rights.
II.
I am Mirabel
Mirabel Anne
descend’d from my mother Mirabel
from her mother Mirabel
from her mother’s mother Mirabel
named for my Aunt Anne
for whom my mother Mirabel warned
do not say to your aunt
that Hannibal was swarthy
that he may have been black
do not say to your aunt
we are not pure
we are not white
we are not daughters
we are not DAR
Mother
Lincoln left us
pure white
wast’d water’d down
We steal what is not our own
blue black rhythms
brought from ivory shores
Without wit
Lincoln betray’d us
left us
in Johnson’s impeached
pure white hands
not accounting for freedmen
for swarthy skin
I yearn to believe
this was not Lincoln’s intent
Mother
we are descend’d from Hannibal
we are descend’d
from black blister’d skin beatings
syphilis untend’d
thin skin torn
bandages bled through
we cannot contain the pain
I yearn for Hannibal’s swarthy skin
I yearn for the hist’ry
President Hamlin might have writ
Hannibal: The Life of Abraham Lincoln’s First Vice President, by Mark Scroggins. Endnotes: Chapter Eight, 71. Hamlin to John W. Babson, February 26, 1866, Hamlin Papers, University of Maine; Hamlin to Benjamin Tefft, February 27, 1866, quoted in Hunt, Hamlin, p.203.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/lincoln-vice-president-hamlin-116930/
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M. Anne Sweet is a poet and artist who has performed and exhibited throughout the Pacific Northwest. As a poet, she has performed individually, as well as with The Seattle Five Plus One and Project Z. Literary credits include a book-length poetry collection, Nailed to the Sky; three graphic poems (in the genre of graphic novels); past winner of the Bart Baxter Poetry in Performance Competition. A book-length collection titled House of Muscle and Bone is forthcoming. She maintains a working studio in the Georgetown area of Seattle, where her pieces frequently combine visual art and poetry. She is the recipient of several purchase and other awards. https://www.studiosixeight.com/