is it the cut glass <br />of their eyes <br />looking up toward <br />the new gnarled branch <br />of the black man <br />hanging from a tree? <br /> <br />is it the white milk pleated <br />collar of the woman <br />smiling toward the camera, <br />her fingers loose around <br />a christian cross drooping <br />against her breast? <br /> <br />is it all of us <br />captured by history into an <br />accurate album? will we be <br />required to view it together <br />under a gathering sky?<br /><br />Lucille Clifton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-photograph-a-lynching/
