The Black Christ & Other Poems/Light Lady

by Countee Cullen

Light Lady

THEY say when virtue slipped from her,Awakened by her fallSin seemed to work a miracleAnd made her soul grow tall.

Here with her penny papers by,We see how well she diced:Nothing to do but munch her gumsAnd sing the love of Christ.

And now with alms for what she wasMen stroke her ragged fur;When Death comes down this street, his faceWill not be strange to her.