put a colored girl in the paper,

call her a hero,

just cause she saved a kid

from being hit by a train.

a jew kid.

i could have saved the kid.

i saw it, too. that train

tearing along the track.

i saw it, too.

i didn’t run like that colored girl did.

i didn’t try.

maybe i was thinking no one could.

no one could beat that train.

but the colored girl,

i never saw anyone move so fast.

she ran like a deer,

like a deer in a rifle sight,

one you let go

cause there’s no way to hit

a swift brown rush weaving through the trees like that.

i’m not saying she did anything i couldn’t have done,

but when i think on it,

maybe i didn’t try because something,

something kept me in my place,

watching that colored girl run.