A Moment Please

When I gaze at the sun
I walked to the subway booth
for change for a dime
and know that this great earth
Two adolescent girls stood there
alive with eagerness to know
is but a fragment from it thrown
in their new found world
all there was for them to know
in a heat and flame a billion years ago,
they look at me and brightly asked
"Are you Arabian"
that then this world was lifeless
I smiled and cautiously
- for one growns cautious -
shook my head.
as, a billion hence,
"Egyptian?"
it shall again be,


Again I smiled and shook my head
and walked away.
what a moment is it that I am betrayed,
I've gone but seven paces now
oppressed, cast down
and from behind comes swift the sneer
or warm with love or triumph?
"Or Nigger?"

A moment, please
What is it that to fury I am roused?
for still it takes a moment
What meaning for me
and now
in the homeless clan
I'll turn
the dupe of space
and smile
the toy of time?

and nod my head

by Samuel Allen (Paul Vesey)