His freedom started where it ended, with her name:
Kissy Done, who lived at Corinth, Miss.
in 1862. I learned she left there for Memphis.
(Last seen with a broom? Last heard in a scream?
Last heard, the last time? Last seen in a dream?)
Around Levy’s ad, ads for blacksmiths, harness-
makers, ads for grocers selling lemons, ice
cream, ginger, soap, other things besides freedom
he could desire. What Moses wanted—not the Red Sea
but the Promised Land. She is my mother,
I would be glad to hear from her. I have a brother,
Joseph Done, and an uncle somewhere in that country.
Other things besides freedom he could desire:
he wanted them led home, by columns of fire.
Levy Done Places an “Information Wanted” Ad in The Colored Tennessean, August 1865
Melissa Range is the author of Scriptorium, a winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2016), and Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010). Recent poems have appeared in Ecotone, The Iowa Review, The Nation, and Ploughshares. Range is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Originally from East Tennessee, she teaches creative writing and American literature at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. www.melissarange.com.