Sukie

Sukie lived with them,
she cooked and cleaned
and cared for their babies.

There were no family
members to take her
to any promised land

when the fog of War
had cleared.  She knew
well the ravages of war

and disease, she had
no home to go back to,
no forty acres, no mule,

no gold.  As Hallelujahs
rang out, so did the voices
of the sick and starving,

as liberators shouted
Freedom, thorny obstacles
and injustices echoed

throughout the South.
Sukie was free, still-
she asked, "Can I stay?"

Page 46, The Thorny Truth and Their Civil War (The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina)
--Karen Kay Knauss (A gift from Tom at the 9th NC PATCON )