Sister Lou Ella Hickman
November 8, 2026
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
maya angelou
i am 77 now
i wonder did anyone know
i wonder what did my grandparents who lived there know
she the town’s beloved teacher he the beloved quiet deputy sheriff
did my father know
did my grandparents tell my mother
living 600 miles away with her mother & us 2 small girls
my own community sisters taught school there for some 30 years
what did they know between ’54-‘56
i came across the story 3 days ago
about a sleepy shrimping village
my sister and i would visit once a year for a month during july
the headline stared me in the face
port isabel immigration deportation point
so i looked it up
2,000 miles
the ship made 26 trips carrying 800 souls with bodies to veracruz
they called it operation wetback
the slur that hid a war
not one of bullets or bombs
yet it was a killing the gulf the ship
the war of we vs them
the war of erasure
this is a story never retold
a war no one saw no one knew
until today
now i carry the weight of death
its silence like the silence that comes
after bullets and bombs
The writings of Sister Lou Ella Hickman, OVISS, have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Press 53 published her first book of poetry in 2015 entitled she: robed and wordless and her second, Writing the Stars on October 4, 2024. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017 and 2020.
