Reginald Dwayne Betts: ‘Jethro’s Corner’

I      Maps
The corner of Ashmun & Grove & the sometimes
When the only evidence is a map; the disappearing

English of old: plat, a funky word that exists most
In memory, meant to make a plan or map of;
To draw to scale; to plot.

A man who cannot read coordinates can still plot
On his freedom. Imagine a rectangle on the oldest
Map in these nine squares of geography

Once called a wilderness.

         Quinnipiac           Pequot           Paugussett

To plot freedom is to leave the words that matter
Written across everything you own that matters,
As in leave the names that your loves call you
All the places that you traverse.

As in, to name is to announce worthy of remembrance.

II     Property
Some evidence of  this life is always measured
By the weight of  La Llorona’s weeping.

Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro
Jethro Jethro Jethro owed his name. Left
This world owed his name. Who enters heaven
Owed their name? Who enters nameless?

        Historical Catalogue of  the Members of  the First Church of
        Christ in New Haven, Connecticut, A.D. 1639–1914
        Compiled by Franklin Bowditch Dexter

                         CATALOGUE OF MEMBERS, 1726–28

May 15.    875.  Patience Mix (John) Alling                      *May, 1786
                          Daughter of Caleb and Mary (494); born March, 1699;                                  wife of 1052.
                 876.  Mary Atwater (Isaac) Dickerman             *17—
                          Daughter of 421 and 338; born Dec., 1686; wife of 605.
                 877.  Experience Perkins (David) Gilbert          *May, 1748
                          Daughter of  David and Deliverance (354); born Dec., 1699;
                          wife of 1111.
                 878.  Jethro Luke (colored)                               *1760–61

Franklin knew his name enough to count
Him more than 3/5ths,

To list his surname & call him colored,
To be counted & named, the fourth member
Whose lineage included a slave ship.
The first non-European with a surname listed,

From an old English variant that sounds like luck,
Or happenstance, which in the land of cotton is a variant

For the word irony, for deliverance, think Luke
Of  the Gospel, Luke the liberator, Luke as
English variant of  Lucas, Lucius, bright, light

For a plot listed in the corner of a map.

Jethro Luke was colored, cast in shadows
Of manacles—or, in the parlance
Of  Marx & Pareto: Jethro was owed,

Left owning little, beyond whatever he held
When his eyes searched the freedom of a night sky:

Brown coat … old great Coat … brown Jacket … white Jacket,
1 check shirt … black stocking … old ax … small tongs …
old gun barrel … great Bible … 8 round bottles … candle stick …
old mare … pair of  oxen … plow share

III   Freedom
Is one way to name this story.
Sometimes only maps be evidence.
In 1748, a corner mark confesses:

Jethro a Black man farmer.
Corner of Ashmun & Grove, a small city park
Cradling the Grove Street cemetery,
& all the freedom not permitted to rest there—

                 Jethro Ruth Mindwell Sampson Betty Joe
                 Jinny Mingo Sanders Sabina Sibyl
                 Phyllis Dinah Pero Sume Pompey Gad
                 Rose Rhoda Phyllis Pompey Williams Newport
                 Amasa Silva Cesar Rose Cato Leah Socoro
                 Peter Alice Little George Jack York Pressey
                 Polly Cesar Peter Simeon Joseph Bristol
                 Nando Jeff Congo Pompey Benjamin Cuff Phillis
                 Sharper Rogers Jack David Gardiner Dinah
                 Bet Alling Jack Geff Ruben Ruth Cambridge
                 Cuff Edwards Amy Belfast Fowler Primus
                 Tim Lenard Eli Harry Sue Daggett Gain Amey
                 Joe Place Jane Cesar Jin Daniel Thomas.

This poem is from Reginald Dwayne Betts’s new book, Doggerel.