Vox Populi
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Toi Derricotte: Not Forgotten
I love the way the black ants use their dead.
They carry them off like warriors on their steel
backs. They spend hours struggling, lifting,
dragging (it is not grisly as it would be for us,
to carry them back to be eaten),
so that every part will be of service. I think of
my husband at his father’s grave—
the grass had closed
over the headstone, and the name had disappeared. He took out
his pocket knife and cut the grass away, he swept it
with his handkerchief to make it clear. “Is this the way
we’ll be forgotten?” And he bent down over the grave and wept.
Copyright © 1997 by Toi Derricotte. From Tender (Pitt, 1997). Used by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.
Toi Derricotte is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among other honors. Derricotte is cofounder of Cave Canem, professor emerita at the University of Pittsburgh, and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
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The poem surprises!
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The leap from the warrior ants to the grief of the son at the gravesite is profound.
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What a fascinating juxtaposition of ants and humans and the meaning of their deaths. Wow!
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Toi makes huge profound leaps.
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This is a great grief poem. It leaves me with tears, but also the gift of joy and thanksgiving.
One of the few Pittsburgh poets I knew of before tuning in to Vox Populi. Thanks for sharing her work. And the poems of many others.
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Love her work. This poem is striking.
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Was introduced to her by you. Thank you again.
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Oh God. A stunning poem. We are as the least of these.
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I love Toi’s poems.
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