Black Man Running

Editor’s note: The following poem was written in the late 1980s, inspired by the author’s experience teaching life skills at Pius XII Youth and Family Services, a Catholic-run organization based in Orange County. In a letter sent to Straus News, she shared that a resident in a group home said he intended to become a drug dealer because, “that’s the thing he figured he was cut out for.” The author thought about the words of this young man and was moved to compose this piece. She gave the poem to the young man and shared it for Black History Month observance at a local church. We are sharing these words with permission from the author.

Black Man Running

Black man running, fleeing his worst nightmare
Crouching in hedgerows, hiding in the swamp
Praying to escape the hooded white figures
Bent on his destruction

Black man running: assumed to be
the “alleged perpetrator.”
Thought by fearful whites to be fleeing
from some recently committed crime

Black man running in that Munich Stadium
Dispelling the myth of Aryan superiority
Surmounting the odds with quiet dignity

Black man running, yet again inspiring fear
Black man running - The Klan’s worst nightmare
Black man running for president

Barbara Mach
Warwick