Upon Arrival At Fort Comfort I.

                        (For Angela, enslaved, Jamestown, Virginia 1619)

I remember water fresh as tongued rain
during rainy season—
how its spears the skin clean

how it washes silt away
erases footprints and boot prints
carves runnels and makes new pathways.

Just a remnant of those herded onto ships months ago,
we have been divided, have been examined
and bargained for but not yet fed.

I anticipate my first taste of water—
fresh water cooling the drought
in my throat

captured rain or well-drawn
not sour from months in barrels
not fouled by the effluvium of bilge.

Ellen June Wright is an American poet with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published in Plume, Tar River, Missouri Review, Verse Daily, Gulf Stream, Solstice, Louisiana Literature, Leon Literary Review, North American Review, Prelude and Gulf Coast, and is forthcoming in the Cimarron Review. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna and has received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations.