Pearl Payne and Lee Pleasant Driver,
two of the few Negroes in Anaconda,
a smelter town, found each other. Lee,
the protected side of something—
sheltered and sheltering—a pleasant
place out of the wind and rain. A pearl
grows from the need to soothe pain
—nacre encases irritants to smooth
rough edges and results in a luster
we appreciate, worthy of the necks
of our adored if we can afford it.
Smelting, extracting the metal from rock
or ore, copper in this case (valued because
it carries a current and connects people)
requires heat and care. Lee Pleasant,
a former Buffalo Soldier, saw worth
in Pearl Payne, and she in him. He, born
at the end of the war, and she, a dozen
years later, who didn’t know slavery
but knew well what it meant to be
Black in a newly reconciled nation,
wed in that Western smelter town.
Born and raised in Milledgeville, Georgia, Sean Hill is the author of two poetry collections, Dangerous Goods (Milkweed Editions, 2014), awarded the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, and Blood Ties & Brown Liquor (UGA Press, 2008), named one of the Ten Books All Georgians Should Read in 2015 by the Georgia Center for the Book. He directs the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference at Bemidji State University. Hill lives in southwestern Montana with his family and is a professor of creative writing at the University of Montana. More information can be found at www.seanhillpoetry.com.
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This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Pearl & Lee.
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