A plaque on the Salem Tavern says,
“George Washington slept here.”
It’s true, it’s well documented,
and my daughter doesn’t care.
She’s not a fan. She hasn’t been
since she was six and learned
how Washington freed his slaves
on his deathbed. He waited
she said with disappointment
until he didn’t need them
and they were probably too old
to enjoy their freedom then.
Later, looking at her allowance,
she insisted, Washington
shouldn’t even be on the dollar.
When I offered to keep the money,
I saw the struggle, the realization
that this wasn’t how it should be,
but how it is. These symbols
are the ones we live with.
No, she said, I’ll take it,
reaching for the bills
and sensing as she did so
that she had been forced
to participate in something
under the guise of choice.
And now, at the Tavern,
where the first President walked,
hallowed ground for many,
she reads the sign out loud,
“George Washington slept here.”
and asks, “Where did his slaves sleep?”
A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills holds an endowed chair, the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities. He has published four collections of poetry with Press 53. His fifth collection, This Miraculous Turning, will be released in September 2014. More information is available on his website and on his blog.