Color

Chapter 18: Two Who Crossed a Line

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About This Book

A collection of tightly crafted lyrics that probe racial identity, aesthetic aspiration, and personal longing. The poet alternates intimate love poems and public meditations, drawing on classical, religious, and contemporary imagery. Recurring themes include the pain and pride of Black experience, the tension between artistic vocation and social constraint, and reflections on mortality and faith. Formally, poems move between sonnet-like lyrics, epigrams, narrative vignettes, and elegies, marked by musical diction, formal control, and occasional irony. Together the pieces balance tenderness and critique to examine how beauty, suffering, and creative voice intersect under social pressures.

Two Who Crossed a Line

(She Crosses)

FROM where she stood the air she craved

Smote with the smell of pine;

It was too much to bear; she braved

Her gods and crossed the line.

And we were hurt to see her go,

With her fair face and hair,

And veins too thin and blue to show

What mingled blood flowed there.

We envied her a while, who still

Pursued the hated track;

Then we forgot her name, until

One day her shade came back.

Calm as a wave without a crest,

Sorrow-proud and sorrow-wise,

With trouble sucking at her breast,

With tear-disdainful eyes,

She slipped into her ancient place,

And, no word asked, gave none;

Only the silence in her face

Said seats were dear in the sun.