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Shane McCrae

Jim Limber the Adopted Mulatto Son of Jefferson Davis Cannot Afford to Make Demands of Love

Momma Varina feels for Negroes daddy

 

Jeff says she feels for Negroes more than what

 

She should but he don’t tell her what she should be

 

Feeling     for Negroes he’s the president

 

And what’s more daddy     Jeff and if he want-

 

ed to he could     instead he talks to me

 

A lot of the time he talks to me about

 

Things he don’t talk he     says to nobody

 

About he says     it’s something like a Ne-

 

gro cannot listen     like the folks he owes

 

A duty to     and that’s a great relief

 

I know he’s scared sometimes     but he don’t show

 

It much to nobody     else     that’s how I know he

 

Loves me     because he don’t mind what he shows me

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Shane McCrae is the author of In the Language of My Captor, forthcoming in 2017 from Wesleyan University Press, as well as four previous full-length books of poems. He is a recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, a fellowship from the NEA, and a Pushcart Prize, and teaches at Oberlin College.

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Bear Review

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