Negro Woman
The sky hangs heavy tonight
Like the hair of a Negro woman.
The scars of the moon are curved
Like the wrinkles on the brow of a Negro woman.
The stars twinkle tonight
Like the glaze in a Negro woman’s eyes,
Drinking the tears set flowing by an aging hurt
Gnawing at her heart.
The earth trembles tonight
Like the quiver of a Negro woman’s eye-lids cupping tears.
From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), edited by Countee Cullen. This poem is in the public domain.
Lewis Grandison Alexander
Lewis Grandison Alexander was born in 1900 in Washington D. C.. An editor, actor, and playwright, his poems appeared in the magazines The Crisis, Opportunity, and Fire!!, as well as the anthologies The New Negro (Albert and Charles Boni, 1925), Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), and Ebony and Topaz (1927). He died in 1945.