They continued to tug/toil the soil right beside the men–they cursed and prayed in their Gullah/Geechie voices/their Ball n’ Chain voices/their Gullah/Geechie/Ball n’ Chain voices/Ma Rainey/Bessie Smith does the Hucklebuck with Big Mama Thornton and (VOICE) “Oh praise God/help me Lawd git thru another day.” (ALMA) Always my mother/her mother before her praised God not for living/not for happiness/they did not live/they were not happy–they existed and they praised Him not totally sure whether or not He existed. They did so because they were taught to/had to and that there had to be some love somewhere if they prayed long enough/hard enough. There was no love for them on this plane/earthly plane so they praised and prayed in their Gullah/Geechie/voices for a space–no matter how meager in heaven. In heaven they would be seen/loved/not big/ugly/and black in heaven/in heaven they’d be thin/light and beautiful. Here on earth the men beat them/leave them/they ride them/they don’t make love to them/they ride them/the men/always on top/like my father/they rode on top/they rode/they entered/they shot their seed/then left them.

My mother/women like my mother and her mother before her took it/ate it/accepted it as (ODELIA) “one o’ dem tings dat mens does do to womens.” (ALMA) They/felt they deserved no more/no more than that/they felt it was their due for being big, awkward, poor, and dark. This is what my mother/her mother before her believed/they believed had they been born “rich and high yella,” they wouldn’t have suffered/they thanked God that I wasn’t born dark/although too bad I wasn’t lighter/but they thanked God I wasn’t dark. My mother and her mother before her believed/if only they could be light/light and rich/if they could marry a light-skinned man, they’d be loved.

(Lights come up on Eugene, who sits in a chair downstage left. He talks to the audience unless otherwise indicated)