WJEC ENGLISH LITERATURE

A Lynching - 20th October 1894
I
The scene becomes a spectacle.
No Ferris wheels or candy floss,
No roller coaster rides,
No coconut shies or freak shows,
No acrobatic style.
Instead a sole black body swings from
left to right while people
Stare and silent clap.
Hi s fingers will become treasured things
th at people twist in their hands,
ov er and over.
His toes will be their coins,
kept in pockets as souvenirs of this common
entertainment.
His two ears will be thrown around
like rolling dice.
His body loses identity,
is just one black shadow on the society.
Hundred eyes now watch
gouged out holes,
where eyes once were.
His sight is lost –
the others were blinded before.
II
I know not why.
I know only what,
What I did not do.
Did not touch nor look nor speak to her
and now they do not think.
They chased me down like
A wild animal running from spitting hunters.
I hid away, as if guilty, with
No chance to defend.
Yet they caught me,
under the sticky leaves of the tree,
under the spotted sky of ebony.
M y heart jumped out of my mouth - a desperate attempt to
escape certain fate.
My hands stuff it back in,
hiding my fear under my thick fingers.
Momma always told me never to let them see
that big ol' heart of mine -
the whites'll just rip it straight out.
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