Caroling Dusk/To a Dark Girl
TO A DARK GIRL
I love you for your brownnessAnd the rounded darkness of your breast.I love you for the breaking sadness in your voiceAnd shadows where your wayward eye-lids rest.
Something of old forgotten queensLurks in the lithe abandon of your walkAnd something of the shackled slaveSobs in the rhythm of your talk.
Oh, little brown girl, born for sorrow’s mate,Keep all you have of queenliness,Forgetting that you once were slave,And let your full lips laugh at Fate!