down to the wharf, there was always sailors/ shippers from all over the world/ daddy was a seaman/ a ship’s carpenter, he was always goin’ round the world/ that’s what mama said/ & he died in the ocean offa Zanzibar/ that’s what mama said the ship just caught fire/ & went on down to the bottom of the ocean/ that’s why she & sassafrass & cypress & indigo/ wd toss nickels & food & wine in the sea down the coast/ so daddy wd have all he needed to live a good life in the other world, sassafrass stayed by the wharf whenever she cd/ after school she watched the men tyin knots/ fixin nets & she figured her daddy knew all that/ & he cd sing too like the sailors & dance like the west indians/ who was crew on a lotta boats in the seamy port of charleston. sassafrass wd sit on barrels wid the men & help ’em straighten out their nets/ & listen to the tales of other colored folks’ lives in the islands & as far off as new guinea. she tried to imagine what they looked like/ if they weren’t tryin to look like white folks/ what did the languages sound like/ & the cloth & the dance & who were their spirits/ did they believe in jesus or were there other gods/ & other heavens/ like there were drums & special dances the bermudans & trinidadian sailors played in the evenin/ & showed sassafrass what they called the “jump-up”/ or the mambo/ sassafrass picked up a slight accent/ & put her hand on her hip the way the men did when they were imitatin’ their girls at home/ & sassafrass prayed she cd live like that/ free in the country/ surrounded by orange trees & men makin drums & goin out to fish & feasts for the different spirits, sassafrass decided/
bein with the colored sailors & dock workers/ that she shd go everywhere there were dark folks at all/ all over the world where her people lived/ & she wd write it all down so other children wdnt feel lost & think they were stupid ninnies/ like miz fitzhugh told her/ “it’s too bad you a lil ninny, sassafrass, or i’d take you with me on this cruise”/ & to the surprise of the spry seafarers/ sassafrass announced/ “i ’ma be a cunjah.” they laughed incredulously/ sayin/ “you awready a geechee/ how much more magic you want?”