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• 1 media/Marshall Plantation Big House.jpg 2020-11-16T17:59:47+00:00 Mathu's Thoughts 14 image_header 2021-05-21T19:15:19+00:00 By Oakley Montgomery
  
  This poem derives from an early typescript draft, with an alternate spelling of Candy's name. It features a scene of Candy pleading to Mathu to resist his arrest. In response, my poem gives Mathu a chance to speak to Candi as if they were alone. Gaines never shows Mathu expressing his sensitive nature. However, it is evident that he loves Candy, even if he showed it differently than Candy expected. I like to imagine that his interaction with Candy might have been different. So, I took quotes from the chapter and developed Mathu's thought process in a different way than shown on the draft pages. The italic words are the words I imagine Mathu wanted to say but did not speak aloud. 
  
  
  “Somebody’s gotta go, Miss Marshall,” Mathu says. “The people done picked me.”
  
  The people done picked me.
  Somebody’s gotta go.
  
  My time has come
  I gotta go, Candi
  They done picked me
  There nothin to question
  It’s me
  My time
  They done picked me
  My time
  OUR time
  
  “I carried you on my back, I held your hand. I carried your daddy on my back, too, and held his hand.”
  
  I held your hand. I carried you on my back.
  I held your hand.
  
  I remember those days, Candi
  Don’t worry
  I remember picking those berries
  Gotta watch out for those sour ones
  They hurt your cheeks
  I carried your daddy on my back
  Just like I carried you
  I remember how tiny your hand was in mine
  But they done picked me
  It’s my time
  I held your hand
  You gotta let go of mine
  
  “A man is all I ever wanted to be. All I ever tried to be. Nothing more, nothing else.”
  
  A man is all I ever wanted to be.
  Nothing more.
  
  A man
  That’s what I want to be, Candi
  What I need to be
  Nothing more
  A man
  They done picked me to be the man
  That’s what I gotta do
  That’s what I wanna do, Candi
  Mathu is a man
  I am a man
  That’s all I want to be
  Nothing more
  Nothing else