POETRY FRIDAY

People who know me, or who follow my blog, know that I am a long-time teacher, who has spent my entire career in urban settings. They also know that I am Anglo, never married, and that I have two sons, African American, that I adopted in 2003. My sons are now almost 21 and 22.

I am heartsick very time I read of the death of another African American man at the hands of police. I talk to my sons often, as best as an Anglo female can, about how to behave around police. I am afraid every single time they leave my house.

And yet at the same time, I am no less heartsick when I read the news of last night's events in Dallas. I imagine spouses who have spent a sleepless night in hospital waiting rooms, people who will be making funeral arrangements, little children waking up to learn that their daddy or mommy will not come home.

This morning, a friend posted this quote from Alan Paton's novel, Cry the Beloved Country,  first, published in 1948. I read the quote and found my poem for today.

"American Elegy"

Cry,
the beloved country

for the unborn child
that is the inheritor
of our fear.

Let him not
love the earth
too deeply.

Let him not laugh
too gladly
when water runs
through his fingers,

nor stand too silent
when the setting sun
makes red the veld
with fire.

Let him not
be too moved
when the birds of his land
are singing

nor give
too much
of his heart
to a mountain
or valley

For fear
will rob him
of all

if he gives
too much.

Alan Paton
Cry the Beloved Country

Katie, at The Logonauts, is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today.