who Daddy took to sunday school
and who was a member of the choir
and helped with the little kids at
the church picnic,
deep into Love thy Neighbor take
somebody like me
who cried at the March on Washington
and thought Pennsylvania was beautiful
let her read a lot
let her notice things
then
hit her with the Draft Riots and the
burning of the colored orphan asylum
and the children in the church and
the Lamar busses and
the assassinations and the
bombs and all the spittings on our
children and
these beasts were not niggers
these beasts were not niggers
she
will be too old to change and
she will not hate consistently or long
and she will know herself a coward and
a fool.
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