Mississippi Teacher

I remember the forgotten ones alone beneath the stars on a frosty Mississippi morning the unprotected multitude were abandoned by hope and care no paternal spirit guarded them they waved at their white teacher as I passed on the way to school as if I bore a sacred covenant the sharecropper shacks were gray cotton fields in the back yard and peas and collards for supper not one in a hundred was lifted up but held within a legacy of death monstrous poverty and bigotry oh yes I ran away as far as I could but I have not forgotten them and they say it's different now they say there is hope for America but all I can see is fear and my hands are old and helpless