Query
Great wonder that my blood spurts ruby red
And not a green and slimy stream instead—
That all my tears are salt, not bitter gall,
That I still live, and love and laugh at all!
And that my teeth are lustrous, pearly white,
Instead of blue cold blades that clash at night.
Why do you stand aloof and bid me pray,
You who sow strife and pain upon my way?
How does my soul live on mauled by hate’s rod?
You cannot know ’twas made by One called God.
From Black Opals 1, No. 2 (Christmas 1927). This poem is in the public domain.
Nellie Rathbone Bright
Nellie Rathbone Bright was born on March 28, 1898, in Savannah, Georgia, to Reverend Richard Bright and Nellie Jones Bright. With Arthur Fauset, Rathbone Bright cofounded Black Opals , a literary magazine published in Philadelphia that grew to be representative of the artistic merit of the Harlem Renaissance. She died on February 7, 1977.