“To Sew a Freedom Suit,” by Danielle Legros Georges

  Take measurements to determine the size of it.

How lavish the jacket and sleeves, the inseam.

  Appraise from shoulder to shoulder its width.

Measure neck, chest, waist. Note

  Its dimensions on brown paper. Otherwise

In the green field of your imagining.

  When and where you will wear your suit.

Consider. Running

  An errand in town, as if for another?

(Knowing to hide in plain view as a kind of candor.)

  Jumping the broom or another revelation

Of a grand joy? Which design to espouse?

  Three-piece with jacket and pants ideal for winter?

Vest for keeping cool where there is

  No winter? Dress of preposterous number

Of buttons? Make the pattern. Choose

  Your fabric. Pin the paper blueprint to your

Cloth. Cut along the edges of the paper

  Pattern pieces, then cut again along the flanks

Of your green field’s imagining.

—Danielle Legros Georges (1964-2025)

This is drawn from “Acts of Resistance to New England Slavery by Africans Themselves in New England.”