from Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels, by Kevin Young, excerpted from a feature in At Length magazine. Click here to read more from Mr. Young. Click here to read Elizabeth Alexander’s poetic response to the sequence.

“Speech” by Kevin Young

having English now
I hope to tell you what
it meant to hear your
words it was a river
slowly icing over it was
rain falling into water
was the night following
rain into water a father
crocodile waking early
to eat his children it
became the memory

of a gourd at my lips
the salt surrounding
the ship so white
& useless it was a thirst
a message thrown over
board a bottle a sudden
ash upon our skin our
tongues grown dark
& unavoidable as bay
leaves I thank you gentle
men for lending us yours