A HART RESURRECTION
Who will lift up the names of the people
buried on Hart Island, located in the Long Island Sound?
People with no headstones, no markers, and bare records
left unidentified in unhallowed ground?
Supervised by the NYC Department of Corrections,
the prison labor buried over 850, 000 people in mass graves.
Who will honor the homeless, destitute and stillborns
laid to rest in such a place?
Children, whose parent’s rights had been terminated, and
who were taken by the State and placed in the City’s care?
Children, dead and buried young, in a potter’s field
while their parents remained unaware?
Who will lift up the names of the people
in this City Cemetery that dates from the Civil War?
Closed, except for a one-time visit by a relative with documented proof;
who will take on the responsibility, raise the issue, and force open the door?
Melinda Hunt and Rosalind Maya Lama
advocate the Hart Island Project to raise public consciousness,
pay homage to the deceased, and change the treatment
of young unwed mothers and their offspring who are victimized and helpless.
Who will lift up the names of the people
buried on Hart Island, located in the Long Island Sound?
We, the city’s poets will write poems and speak their names
to resurrect their memories and sanctify this ground.