To the Bramble and the Briar: Poems

The Torches

e Torches Concerning even the notion of the idea of one black soldier, Frederick Douglass wrote seven terse elegant letters to the president. Every day alone he visited with the secretary of war and whatever member of Congress would listen to what he had to say. He argued with the sycamores and the clouds. He could not convince anyone of the power of a freed man with a gun or the dignity of a uniform. Lincoln chewed on the fingernail of a thumb. He was for this—and against, as the president of a place lit with hate like torches in hay. Every day that winter it was cold until suddenly it was warm, and regiment after regiment formed and died and formed into ordinary lines of advance. Each man with a rifle—objective as a scientist. 1 ...