BLACKBEARD’S SWAMP (14)
L.B. Sedlacek
Legend tells that Blackbeard landed here
near New Bern and that his ghost still
walks the swamps of eastern North Carolina
leaving bloody footprints,
and if you walk his path today
littered with arrowheads and the ravages of hurricanes
you may find forgotten proof from his ship
that proves his existence,
and that proof may or may not
carry a curse — curses! — with it, but if it does
it’s likely to be bloody — the best curses — curses! — always are.
