By George Marion McClellan
All Nashville is a chill. And everywhere
Like desert sand, when the winds blow,
There is each moment sifted through the air,
A powdered blast of January snow.
O! thoughtless Dandelion, to be misled
By a few warm days to leave thy natural bed,
Was folly growth and blooming over soon.
And yet, thou blasted yellow-coated gem,
Full many a heart has but a common boon
With thee, now freezing on thy slender stem.
When the heart has bloomed by the touch of love’s warm breath
Then left and chilling snow is sifted in,
It still may beat but there is blast and death
To all that blooming life that might have been.
Source: African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology (University of Illinois Press, 1992)
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I will tell you why she rarely ventured from her house.
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One day she took the train to Boston,
made her way to the darkened room,
put her name down in cursive script
and waited her turn.
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