A Black Man Talks of Reaping

 I have sown beside all waters in my day.

I planted deep, within my heart the fear
that wind or fowl would take the grain away.

I planted safe against this stark, lean year.
 

I scattered seed enough to plant the land
in rows from Canada to Mexico
but for my reaping only what the hand
can hold at once is all that I can show.


Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields
my brother's sons are gathering stalk and root;
small wonder then my children glean in fields
they have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit.

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