AfroPoets Famous Writers

Theories of Time and Space


You can get there from here, though
there's no going home.


Everywhere you go will be somewhere
you've never been. Try this:


head south on Mississippi 49, one-
by-one mile markers ticking off


another minute of your life. Follow this
to its natural conclusion - dead end


at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches


in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand


dumped on a mangrove swamp - buried
terrain of the past. Bring only


what you must carry - tome of memory
its random blank pages. On the dock


where you board the boat for Ship Island,
someone will take your picture:


the photograph - who you were -
will be waiting when you return

Written by Natasha Trethewey

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