lincoln speak

i had a friend, jordan, whose grandfather was a slave
he told me that when his grandfather was a boy
in the south people gathered on a hill somewhere
to hear abraham lincoln speak
the grandfather was blind since birth, and an old man
when he told jordan
how he heard lincoln's sharp voice, high-pitched, clear like a trumpet over the crowd
i can let those words set
and ring in your head
like lincoln's must have done
to that boy who knew he was hearing the president