Poem: "Skin Bridges"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the freebie for the February crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by prompts from nsfwords and scrubjayspeaks.  It also fills the "Carnation (general) - fascination" square in my 2-1-21 "The Language of Flowers" card for the Valentines Bingo fest.  This poem belongs to the series Eloquent Souls.


"Skin Bridges"


Back in slavery days,
some people found
their way to freedom
over skin bridges.

For all the black people
who suddenly hated
the white lines on them,
there were others who
found rays of hope.

"I'm a conductor.
Who's comin' with me?"

"Thee does not have
to come in by the back door."

"Welcome to Canada.
You're free now."

Some even had
quilt patterns marked
on their bodies to show
where they could find
love, friendship, support.

For those who bore
words on their wrists
instead of adinkra symbols
or other pictograms, there
were a few slaves who knew
how to read and could
translate the writing.

Among white people,
the abrupt appearance of
African imagery could be
devastating -- or enlightening.

Blacks and whites became
fascinated with each other.

The more they mingled,
the more soulbonds occurred
across the lines of race and culture.

It eroded support for slavery
by giving vivid proof that
Africans were people too,
human enough to become
the soulmates of white people.

So the peculiar institution fell,
and America moved on.

The blacks and the whites
found soulmates here and there,
written in words or images.

In time, people began
to forget how it started,
how the letters and symbols
had helped slaves escape
and slaveowners become
abolitionists instead.

Was it history or myth?

Hard to tell, with the people
and their soulmarks gone
into the ground long ago.

But the stories survived,
oral tradition preserving
what artifacts could not,
family history passed down
about how their ancestors
had found each other.

Even now, soulmarks
dance from land to land,
holding hands without touching.

* * *

Notes:

Adinkra symbols appear in West Africa. See some examples.

See a timeline of the Atlantic slave trade from our dimension. This timeline shows slavery in America. Both eroded faster in eloquent-Earth due to soulmarks.

Here we have the oral history about the quilt code in the Underground Railroad. A similar dispute arose over soulmarks due to lack of hard evidence surviving over time.

Comments

[nsfwords]

*Joy!* This really hit the spot!

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy to hear that. It's a fascinating setting to explore.

[(Anonymous)]

>>The more they mingled,
the more soulbonds occurred
across the lines of race and culture.<<

In the olden days, folk would mingle across social classes a lot more than nowadays. You'd be living together, working together, being in-and-out of each other's lives (to varying degrees) a lot more so than most folk these days are with employers / staff.

This also reminds me of The Free State of Jones (film).
"Yeah, that's why we left too."

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

One of the best descriptions I heard about the difference between South and North is this:

"Southerners don't care how close blacks get as long as they don't get too uppity, and Northerners don't care about uppity blacks get as long as they don't get too close."

Re: Thoughts

[(Anonymous)]

I have a [white] Southern-raised grandparent who moved up North and worked in social services. Their coworkers were some variety of suprised that my grandparent would cheerfully talk to the black folks that lived in the neighborhood. (The neighbors apparently liked my grandparent enough to feed the parking meters for them every now and again.)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Awesome! :D

One time in an antique store, I had an older black lady latch onto me and basically act like family. She was from farther south, up in central Illinois visiting family. I guess something about my speech pattern and/or body language must have clued her that I was amenable, and well, Doug's from inner city Detroit.

[readera]

Yay! 😁😁💖💖

This was lovely! I love the idea of a seamstress or sewist having quilting soulmarks.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It makes sense, but bear in mind that soulmarks appear on the other person -- someone with a quiltmark might have a soulmate who is a quilter or their meeting might relate to the meaning of the pattern.

Re: Well ...

[(Anonymous)]

Quilting bees?

[scrubjayspeaks]

Lovely! I'm interested in the use of quilt patterns. Would that imply the first contact between the two people wasn't spoken at all, but the offering of a blanket? I'd love to know more about the logistics of pictographic soulmarks in this setting. Do they still appear to any great degree in modern times? Has anyone ended up with emoticons/emoji as all or part of their soulmark if their first contact with their soulmate was text-based?

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Lovely! I'm interested in the use of quilt patterns.<<

Yay!

>> Would that imply the first contact between the two people wasn't spoken at all, but the offering of a blanket? <<

Possibly, but it could also just mean that the soulmate is a quilter, or that the meaning of that particular quilt pattern is relevant to the way they meet. Images are less specific than words.

>> I'd love to know more about the logistics of pictographic soulmarks in this setting. Do they still appear to any great degree in modern times?<<

I expect they still appear, but more often in less-literature areas or among people less attached to reading and writing. It has to be something that those two particular people can grasp well enough to provide a clue about their relationship so they can follow it.

>> Has anyone ended up with emoticons/emoji as all or part of their soulmark if their first contact with their soulmate was text-based? <<

LOL yes, that does make sense. Text-based connections strong enough to activate a soulbond would probably appear in type font instead of the speaker's handwriting, too.