Saul Bennett
Negroes, Swinging
Neat, slender Negroes swinging
small canvas bags tight with overnight items
dusk-walked the black bridge
athwart the sign
WORLD'S LARGEST RAIL PASSENGER CAR YARD
BUY WAR BONDS'.
These were almost the only Negroes seen outside
a precious baseball Saturday inside
the Polo Grounds in Harlem.
A steep flight lowered them
into the readying, thnimming cars
where they dissolved
into pressed porter blues or starched waiter whites
worn westward, a silent servants' legion
our future would not again reveal.
Who wouldn't envy their darkness
continent adventures flowing
into the unknown,
wishing, with a whisper,
to be winked aboard
with a canvas bag of one's own!