Wednesday, November 26, 2008

105. ISABELLE BAUMFREE

ISABELLA BAUMFREE
(Sojourner Truth)
The sidewalks were overflowing with people -
the kind of people poverty sends your way.
Tenement buskers, rakish little Irish kids
with swagger, runaway slaves and freed ones too,
who essentially lived where they wanted,
anywhere they chose, and did what they wanted too.
And then there was me. My name was changed -
to Sojourner Truth - by me.
It used to be Isabella Baumfree.
I chose to be.
I chose it all.
'The Spirit calls me, and I must go.'

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