Paying Homage to Foremother Writers

I woke up this morning and thought about all the black women writers/poets that have picked up pen before me.

I looked in my Norton's Anthology of African American Literature and found something quite appropriate for this election year.

"Aunt Chloe's Politics" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

Of course, I don't know very much
About these politics,
But I think some who run em'
Do mighty ugly tricks.

I've seen 'em honey-fugle round
And talk so awful sweet,
That you'd think them full of kindness,
As an egg is full of meat.

Now I don't believe in looking
Honest people in the face,
And saying when you're doing wrong,
That "I haven't sold my race."

When we want to school our children,
If the money isn't there,
Whether black or white have took it,
The loss we all must share.

And this buying up each other
Is something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
I go for voting clean.

Written in 1872