2/24/94 a.m.

The poet turns and turns inwardly:
from the slow rain now falling
on the fruit trees and the swimming pool,
to the hardships of the poor.

Let the fallen orange
represent the
fading hopes of youth's ideals.
Let the bird now singing
describe the dreams of an
African-American girl
walking down West 125th Street
right now enraged
and the lives of children and adults
who are forced to live under the cold
shadows of racial bias.