Poem 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 Balimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

1. To Certain Critics
2. For a Poet
3. Karenge Ya Marenge
4. That Bright Chimeric Beast
5. Song in Spite of Myself

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