GoSetaPhire

   April Is National Poetry Month

Thematically interwoven with his play “Mulatto” and the short story “Father and Son.” Cross was first published in The Crisis magazine in December 1925.

Cross

My old man's a white old man

And my old mother's black.

If I ever cursed my white old man

I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother

And wished she were in hell,

I'm sorry for that evil wish

And now I wish her well.

My old man died in a fine big house.

My ma died in a shack.

I wonder where I'm gonna die,

Being neither white nor black?