Deliverance
Caroline Picker & Leah Jo Carnine
“The Coffins” by Leah Jo Carnine
For Catherine and Levi Coffin, who organized dozens of neighbors to help over one thousand people escape slavery through the Underground Railroad, or as Levi called it, the mysterious road.
In the daily rhythm
of washing sheets,
stirring pots,
cash exchanged,
children growing,
invite the neighbors in.
Become a minyan,
an ocean,
a sewing circle.
A plumbing system
in which water runs freely
back to sea.
Offer precisely what is owed,
sanctuary held open
like an unpoled tent.
Be ready for the next knock,
then one hundred more.
Carry on like workhorses
who can only go the speed
that they can go,
who keep moving forward
relentless, together.
Wake early because birds,
because the list never gets done,
because the times of day
when light collapses
are when trees
offer safest passage,
because the knock on the door
begs ushering, begs waystation,
begs that we all make our lives
a portal onto freedom.