"History Lesson" by Natasha Trethewey"

Natasha Trethewey, born in Mississippi, draws much of her inspiration from her upbringing in the South--particularly as the daughter of a mixed-race marriage. A decorated writer, she was named Poet Laureate of the state of Mississippi in 2012 and the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States. 

History Lesson
by Natasha Trethewey

I am four in this photograph, standing   
on a wide strip of Mississippi beach,   
my hands on the flowered hips 

of a bright bikini. My toes dig in,   
curl around wet sand. The sun cuts   
the rippling Gulf in flashes with each   

tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet 
glinting like switchblades. I am alone 
except for my grandmother, other side   

of the camera, telling me how to pose.   
It is 1970, two years after they opened   
the rest of this beach to us,   

forty years since the photograph   
where she stood on a narrow plot   
of sand marked colored, smiling, 

her hands on the flowered hips   
of a cotton meal-sack dress.




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