Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/225

Rh Is this Thy Justice, O Father, that guile be easier than innocence and the innocent be crucified for the guilt of the untouched guilty? Justice, O Judge of men! Wherefore do we pray? Is not the God of the Fathers dead? Have not seers seen in Heaven’s halls Thine hearsed and lifeless form stark amidst the black and rolling smoke of sin, where all along bow bitter forms of endless dead? Awake, Thou that sleepest! Thou art not dead, but flown afar, up hills of endless light, through blazing corridors of suns, where worlds do swing of good and gentle men, of women strong and free—far from cozenage, black hypocrisy, and chaste prostitution of this shameful speck of dust! Turn again, O Lord; leave us not to perish in our sin! From lust of body and lust of blood,— Great God, deliver us! From lust of power and lust of gold,— Great God, deliver us! From the leagued lying of despot and of brute,— Great God, deliver us! A city lay in travail, God our Lord, and from her loins sprang twin Murder and Black Hate. Red was the midnight; clang, crack, and cry of death and fury filled the air and trembled underneath the stars where church spires pointed silently to Thee. And all this was to sate the greed of greedy men who hide behind the veil of vengeance. Bend us Thine ear, O Lord!