第7章 Cultural Exchange

In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack-o-Lanterns caper And the wind wont wait for midnight For fun to blow doors down. By the river and the railroad With fluid far-off goind Boundaries bind unbinding

A whirl of whisteles blowing. No trains or steamboats going-- Yet Leontynes unpacking. In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doorknob lets in Lieder More than German ever bore, Her yesterday past grandpa-- Not of her own doing-- In a pot of collard greens Is gently stewing. Pushcarts fold and unfold

In a supermarket sea. And we better find out, mama, Where is the colored laundromat Since we move dup to Mount Vernon. In the pot begind the paper doors on the old iron stove whats cooking? Whats smelling, Leontyne? Lieder, lovely Lieder And a leaf of collard green. Lovely Lieder, Leontyne.

You know, right at Christmas They asked me if my blackness, Would it rub off? I said, Ask your mama. Dreams and nightmares! Nightmares, dreams, oh! Dreaming that the Negroes Of the South have taken over-- Voted all the Dixiecrats Right out of power-- Comes the COLORED HOUR: Martin Luther King is Governor of Georgia,

Dr. Rufus Clement his Chief Adviser, A. Philip Randolph the High Grand Worthy. In white pillared mansions