WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:04.850 --> 00:00:05.350 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:05.350 --> 00:00:08.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:08.830 --> 00:00:13.180 align:middle line:84% The next poem I'm going to read, which 00:00:13.180 --> 00:00:17.380 align:middle line:84% will be next to the last poem, well this 00:00:17.380 --> 00:00:20.890 align:middle line:90% is one called "Polly and Platt." 00:00:20.890 --> 00:00:23.350 align:middle line:90% I guess I'll read that one. 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:25.210 align:middle line:90% And this is Platt talking. 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:28.150 align:middle line:84% This is a slave man who had to beat her 00:00:28.150 --> 00:00:34.150 align:middle line:84% because she went next door to get soap to wash herself with, 00:00:34.150 --> 00:00:36.550 align:middle line:84% and this was a plantation next door to her. 00:00:36.550 --> 00:00:39.400 align:middle line:84% And she went over to get some soap from the couple who 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:40.420 align:middle line:90% lived there. 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:42.070 align:middle line:84% The man was free, and he was married 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:45.010 align:middle line:90% to a woman on the plantation. 00:00:45.010 --> 00:00:48.100 align:middle line:84% And Polly went next door to get to some soap to cleanse herself 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.410 align:middle line:84% because her master had just raped her, 00:00:50.410 --> 00:00:55.510 align:middle line:84% and she was beaten by one of the other slaves. 00:00:55.510 --> 00:01:00.010 align:middle line:90% And Platt is talking to us. 00:01:00.010 --> 00:01:03.040 align:middle line:84% All she could do was call my name, Platt, Platt, 00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:04.720 align:middle line:84% for I had beaten her all I could, 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:06.910 align:middle line:84% till I could scourge her no more. 00:01:06.910 --> 00:01:09.190 align:middle line:84% And then Ephrim our master finished the job. 00:01:09.190 --> 00:01:14.090 align:middle line:84% Platt, oh, Platt, like a calling to hell, my own, 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:16.280 align:middle line:84% since I'd given her the first wound. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:20.180 align:middle line:84% But not of my own will because Ephrim held the whip over me 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:21.320 align:middle line:90% and forced me into it. 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:24.440 align:middle line:84% She lay tender, sighing out of her spirit, 00:01:24.440 --> 00:01:27.500 align:middle line:84% asking mine for courage, in a way, forgiving me. 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:29.160 align:middle line:90% What has she done? 00:01:29.160 --> 00:01:32.270 align:middle line:84% Borrowed soap from her neighbor, asked 00:01:32.270 --> 00:01:35.240 align:middle line:84% Molly the Black woman married to her owner, 00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:38.330 align:middle line:84% for something to get clean because she 00:01:38.330 --> 00:01:41.540 align:middle line:84% had lain with Ephrim, and he would have it no other way. 00:01:41.540 --> 00:01:45.830 align:middle line:84% She needed cleanliness, and he took her even 00:01:45.830 --> 00:01:47.510 align:middle line:90% in the middle of her punishment. 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:48.590 align:middle line:90% Was it that? 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:50.300 align:middle line:84% Was something out there punishing 00:01:50.300 --> 00:01:53.060 align:middle line:84% Polly for her big spirit that let 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:57.440 align:middle line:84% her sleep with a crippled monster and she with impunity? 00:01:57.440 --> 00:02:00.950 align:middle line:84% As she lay in tallow wax to heal her bleeding back, 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:04.010 align:middle line:84% he opened her wounds over and over again 00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:06.560 align:middle line:84% and the wax melted and let out the pus that 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.620 align:middle line:84% mingled with her, his white flesh that was no longer white, 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:11.240 align:middle line:90% but smelled of damp mold. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:14.310 align:middle line:84% And what she knew of burial and death, 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:16.370 align:middle line:84% she could bring no child from that. 00:02:16.370 --> 00:02:17.720 align:middle line:90% Platt. 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:18.320 align:middle line:90% Oh, Platt. 00:02:18.320 --> 00:02:20.390 align:middle line:84% I'll go to hell, Platt, she moaned, 00:02:20.390 --> 00:02:21.590 align:middle line:90% and I'll find him there. 00:02:21.590 --> 00:02:25.490 align:middle line:84% I will, hissing and steaming and dripping sour growls, 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:27.470 align:middle line:84% breaking into me like a hot lash. 00:02:27.470 --> 00:02:29.630 align:middle line:84% Devils don't hiss as well as he when 00:02:29.630 --> 00:02:33.470 align:middle line:84% he plunges into my body, my soul, ah Platt! 00:02:33.470 --> 00:02:35.750 align:middle line:90% And her spirit left. 00:02:35.750 --> 00:02:38.150 align:middle line:90% Though she's alive, she ain't. 00:02:38.150 --> 00:02:40.400 align:middle line:90% She doesn't exist anymore. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.770 align:middle line:84% Her body moves through the house like a phantom 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:46.280 align:middle line:84% and vanishes at sunset, and no one ever knows where she goes, 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:47.630 align:middle line:90% not even Ephrim. 00:02:47.630 --> 00:02:51.470 align:middle line:84% When next we see her sometimes before the rise 00:02:51.470 --> 00:02:53.990 align:middle line:84% of the first light on the hill, she's 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:57.710 align:middle line:84% moving like ash, floating about in pieces. 00:02:57.710 --> 00:03:01.880 align:middle line:84% Her head hung like a scarecrow, and a smile 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:04.020 align:middle line:84% don't jump into your throat and make you happy 00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:07.670 align:middle line:84% the way it used to when she was herself, 00:03:07.670 --> 00:03:12.820 align:middle line:84% walking through daisies, giving God his chores. 00:03:12.820 --> 00:03:14.000 align:middle line:90%