Incident by Countee Cullen

Incident
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

[@markreindl684]

I use this with my students when studying the Harlem Renaissance. Very powerful poem, and great reading of it, thank you.

[@All.Natural.]

I read this when I was 8 and never forgot it.

[@couchpotat]

helpful