to have had to drink from the colored only fountain eat at the colored lunch counter pee in the colored toilet
for the slave hunter to have called you a runaway, stolen your papers, sold you
to end up in the river hanging from a tree a bridge buried in a levee
to be kept off the stage stifle your rage have no coming of age?
Can we go to the bridge?
Are you black enough
to be told to sit in the back of the bus to sit in the front
to play jazz with Benny or Miles
to play baseball with the Dodgers tennis at Forest Hills basketball on the first all-black team?
Are you black enough? Are you white enough? Is it all black and white enough?
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