On the bus we’re put in the back

Where the city’s ceaseless crowd moves

Where the doors are doors of paper

 

As I stand aloof

In this vast world of lies and hate and greed

The doors close

 

We contributed our climb

We still live with the outside,

The centre and crater of European confusion

 

Blackness- so easily recognized

My black face fades

There is nothing new

 

For the boys and girls who grew in spite of

Winter in America

Dodge this way or that, or kneel or pray

Forgive now

So that our grief will know no bounds

 

Someday, when trees have shed their leaves

That's newly sprung in June

A pretty a day

In rich blackness, hid from day light

I’ll call it morning

 

All things are possible

But this kind of freedom

Buried alive, captured and suffocated in the folds

We must struggle forth

So when my feeble sun of life burns out

Fill me with light

 

We know the shameful past

How far the roots of flowers go

Aloof and disdainful

Won’t you celebrate with me

Between the Heaves of Storm

Under a soprano sky

Flamed above crimson clouds

 

And then

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

Deceitful wiles

One day after another

Going and coming, and coming and going

 

Enjoy being yourself

It will be over soon

Clear are these things

 

With its white eyes

The weight of the past leans against nothing

 

The day is done

Men of steel will flicker and gleam

 

In Heaven

The darkness and corruption leave

 

I have just seen a beautiful thing