“Untitled,” Poem, Charlene J. Fletcher.

I swam through salt water,

Spirit of the Mother of the Fishes.

I chose them and they nurtured me.

Born to grow, to live, to be.

I blossomed in abundance,

Spirit of the River.

In love, curiosity, comfort.

Gentle waters carried me to this world,

guiding to a new horizon.

But the journey wasn’t always peaceful,

Spirit of the Wind.

Violent gales, stormy seas shattered the comforts of home,

casting me to wander those strange lands,

abundance thinned and silence followed.

She left nothing in her wake,

save an open canvas.

A space to rebuild.

Guide me beyond fear,

Spirit of the Tracker.

Hunting novel ideas, connections, and love.

New meaning rises like fresh prints in new terrain.

Overcoming that fear, the Hunter never misses.

Reborn. Transformed.

I return to the River,

Spirit of Destiny.

Embodying the spirits within.

The sea, the river, the wind, and the tracker.

I emerge, ready to nurture my own.

Dr. Charlene J. Fletcher is the Frances Shera Fessler Assistant Professor of History and a scholar of race, gender, and confinement in the U.S. She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University and previously led a domestic violence/sexual assault program and a prison reentry initiative in New York City. Her forthcoming book, Confined Femininity: Race, Gender, and Incarceration in Kentucky, 1865–1920, examines African American women’s experiences of confinement beyond prisons. Her new project, Down in the Delta, explores race relations between African and Italian Americans in Mississippi.