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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MCDONOGH DAY IN NEW ORLEANS, by MARCUS B. CHRISTIAN Poet's Biography
First Line: The cotton blouse you wear, your mother said
Last Line: How dear comes beauty when a skin is black.
Subject(s): African Americans; Beauty; Negroes; American Blacks
First Line: The cotton blouse you wear, your mother said
Last Line: How dear comes beauty when a skin is black.
Subject(s): African Americans; Beauty; Negroes; American Blacks
The cotton blouse you wear, your mother said,
After a day of toil, "I guess I'll buy it;"
For ribbons on your head and blouse she paid
Two-bits a yard -- as if you would deny it!
And nights, after a day of kitchen toil,
She stitched your re-made skirt of serge -- once blue --
Weary of eye, beneath a lamp of oil:
McDonogh would be proud of her and you.
Next came white "creepers" and white stockings too --
They almost asked her blood when they were sold;
Like some dark princess, to the school go you,
With blue larkspur and yellow marigold;
But few would know -- or even guess this fact:
How dear comes beauty when a skin is black.
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CONDITIONS XXI by ESSEX HEMPHILL
THE CRAFTSMAN by MARCUS B. CHRISTIAN