That Man Is Mine

ELIZA, 1824

 

Master Drake thinks

working in the Big House

is better than picking cotton

in the fields.

What does he know?

I wash and press

mountains of clothes.

I scrub the floors

and scour the pots.

I cut up baskets of onions

till tears run down

my face.

And the Mistress

always watching,

never leaving me alone.

 

Then out the window

I see Dave

carrying a great big jug,

the muscles in his arms

rippling,

and I think—

That man is mine.