The elevator rises, Negro men Receive from Whites a condescending, slight, Forever draped removal -- voice and pen Intensifying sugar half-contrite. A quiet, level spontaneity Springs only where familiar burdens pile, Far from the hired, night-club gaiety, The inexpensive speech, the tactful smile. The radio commentator rolls his trite Evasions, taste of soap within his mouth Newspapermen who know the truth must write: "The delicate race question of the South." The South! -- for years, astute, coarse, windy bands Of men with venom blackening their lips Have ruled the South, but they are not the lands, The loads, the common, homely needs and whips. They are the ones who spur the lyncher' feet: They scurry out to spread old lie and smear. Without them, southern Negroes, Whites could meet And plan sane compromise within one year. The soldiers in the foxholes, black and white, Must function with reliance and respect, And some who march back from pain-welded night Will shoulder memories close and erect. For in the centuries that seem to lift Almost too imperceptibly for hope. Equalities have been a threatened gift Wrenched from the dim light where men thrash and grope. This much we know -- a solid meeting sheers From arduous, scarcely noticed brotherhood: The bread, the stumbling labor shared for years, The mutual rescues, quiet, understood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIRGE FOR A SOLDIER [SEPTEMBER 1, 1862] by GEORGE HENRY BOKER SONNET TO LAKE LEMAN by GEORGE GORDON BYRON BETSY'S BATTLE FLAG by MINNA IRVING VITAI LAMPADA by HENRY JOHN NEWBOLT CALIBAN [ON THE ISLAND], FR. THE TEMPEST by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONNET ON CATHERINE WORDSWORTH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |