Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/84

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We were black, we were black!

We had no claim to love and bliss:

What marvel, if each turned to lack?

They wrung my cold hands out of his,—

They dragged him. . where? . . I crawled to touch

His blood's mark in the dust! . . not much,

Ye pilgrim-souls,. . though plain as this!

Wrong, followed by a deeper wrong!

Mere grief's too good for such as I.

So the white men brought the shame ere long

To strangle the sob of my agony.

They would not leave me for my dull

Wet eyes!—it was too merciful

To let me weep pure tears and die.

I am black, I am black!

I wore a child upon my breast. .

An amulet that hung too slack,

And, in my unrest, could not rest:

Thus we went moaning, child and mother,

One to another, one to another,

Until all ended for the best:

For hark! I will tell you low. . low. .

I am black, you see,—