Why John Calvin Stockburger Fought for the Union When the Rest of Arkansas Seceded

Why John Calvin Stockburger Fought

for the Union When the Rest of Arkansas Seceded

The black boy's belly was round,

his legs and arms were sticks

the white boy would be my great, great grandfather,

John Calvin,

and when the host took the hog

off the spit

he told them both to eat their fill.

Family and friends--- all around, a cluster of eyes,

and laughter easy as the end

of a workday--- only this one, this

black boy,

here for some reason other than the occasion,

maybe to water or feed the horses

but the host had a softness and the hog

was large.

The pork was hot and dripping, keeping all these

hungry faces busy,

and there under one tree,

it slicked twenty small fingers, two faces,

both skins,

eyes intent, perhaps the only difference being

beneath... one was too long empty, marked by

a history of hunger.

That night as the fire cooled and the

the long grass welcomed fireflies

like restless spirits,

John Calvin slept full.

It would be morning before a freckled cousin would

recite for him the story of how

the men had shoveled late into the darkness,

grumbling about the

weight of soil

needed to cover even a" little nigger,"

"Least it warn't that fat mare of

Joe's!" they'd said.

It would be afternoon as he inched his way

toward the fresh mound

when that same cousin would prod him

again and again,

with the saying the host had coined for the

diggers last night, laughing,

"Ain't that just like a nigger-boy to

eat hsself to death."