. . . prose, pics, poetry, and points to ponder . . .

For Kayla:

 

The Black Snowman
by Leonard S. Bernstein
& bold editing by anonymouse

We simply felt it wasn’t right
For snowmen always to be white,
And so we made one black as night.

We thought our neighbors would declare
that we were being very fair.
(Though some we new we couldn’t please
unless we built on Japanese.)

The one neighbor shook his fist
And said that were Communist,
And swore with a foreboding frown,
He’d rather teak his snowman down
Than let him stand near H. Rap Brown.
What if, he soon began to scream,
The snowmen welted in one stream,

Another neighbor, very pale,
promptly put his house for sale.
It was purchase by a classy
Negro chap from Tallahassee,
Who moved in that very night
And built a snowman that was white.

The NAACP and NSCC
Thought it was impolitic.
“A Negro snowman was okay,
If we took his broom away

One neighbor said ours was skilled on,
But wold we let our daughters build one?

The local headquarters of CORE
Promptly ordered thirty more.
And very confidently stated
Snowmen had been integrated.

Another family built a brown one.
Said they’d looked, but hadn’t found one.
Built it right on the plaza
Dedicated it to La Raza.
”Peace” they said, “For all mankind
Of any color you may find.

All the snowmen, brown, black and white,
Melted when the sky turned bright
And only children thought them fun
And cried to watch them taste the sun.