INCIDENT by Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen (1903-1946) was an African-American poet of the Harlem Renaissance period. His works are thoughtful and sad and beautiful.

Here's one poem that I find wrenching:

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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.