Improv 2, Week 8

“Southern History” by Natasha Tretheway

Before the war, they were happy, he said,
quoting our textbook. (This was senior-year

history class.) The slaves were clothed, fed,
and better off under a master’s care.
--
Before the war they were happy. They
were fed, housed. At night their beds
warm and bellies full on more than
meatloaf. Their hair pressed in morning
they dole biscuits and bacon, newspapers and
lunch bags wrinkling louder than
thought. The thoughts of today ring,
clamber, clatter. My dress hugs empty
hips, their plump lips, pinched cheeks.
Gardens oiled as well as a
factory, self-sufficient as a consumer’s
profit. War. No war worse than his
backhand, runways sparking the
scruff of his beard. He refused to shave,
knew if chafed, knew why I burned his
eggs each morning. Why my children don’t
ask my help with their homework.