THE INAUGURATION OF EXPERIMENTS,
December 1845
Lucy didn’t scream like most. Though sometimes she
would moan--deep, long and overdue. I’d wake
thinking death. It’s her, knees curled under, head face
down, her body trying to move out of itself. Anarcha
and I take turns wiping her head with cool rags,
warming her feet with our hands, singing to her. She
would join in a voice so low it wasn't like she was
singing at all but whispering a prayer that hushed on
long after we finished.
Doctor spent a lot of time with Lucy. He would stand
at the foot of her bed looking. Not mad just like he
had a whole lot of questions and wanted answers from
her. I had questions too, so I looked to Anarcha.
She thought a long time. Finally said, She too sick to
die. We too well to be living.
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Born in Baltimore and raised in Southern California, Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, and performer. She is an alumna of Spelman College and the University of Maryland, and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at the College of William and Mary. She has received fellowships from the Five Colleges, The Vermont Studio Center, and the University of Maryland. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry. Her poems have appeared in Torch, Mythium, Meridians, and other journals and anthologies. Most recently, her collection of poems titled Patient. won the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Book Prize and was published in November of 2014. As a singer, she has been invited to perform for audiences in Vancouver, Washington DC, Atlanta, Paris, New York, and Mumbai.
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