Ladders Poem by Elizabeth Alexander

Filene's department store near nineteen-fifty-three:
An Aunt Jemima floor display.
Red bandanna, Apron holding white rolls
of black fat fast against the bubbling pancakes,
bowls and bowls of pale batter.
This is what Donna sees,
across the 'Cookwares' floor,
and hears 'Donnessa? ' Please,
This can not be my aunt.
Father's long-gone sister,
nineteen-fifty-three. 'Girl? '
Had they lost her, missed her?
This is not the question.
This must not be my aunt.
Jemima? Pays the rent.
Family mirrors haunt their own reflections.
Ladders. Sisters. Nieces.
As soon as a live Jemima
as a buck-eyed rhesus monkey. Girl?
Answer me.