Two Towns of Jasper - a film by Whitney Dow and Marco Williams
 

Jasper, Texas, 1998
By Lucille Clifton

 

    i am a man's head hunched in the road.
    i was chosen to speak by the members
    of my body. the arm as it pulled away
    pointed toward me, the hand opened once
    and was gone.

    why and why and why
    should I call a white man brother?
    who is the human in this place,
    the thing that is dragged or the dragger?
    what does my daughter say?

    the sun is a blister overhead.
    if i were alive i could not bear it.
    the townsfolk sing we shall overcome
    while hope drains slowly from my mouth
    into the dirt which covers us all.
    i am done with this dust. i am done.

 

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