25 September

'I've done a couple of new poems,' he wrote. 'I have no more paper, so I'm sending you one on the back of this letter.' The poem, published two years later, was to become a classic.


I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
'Eat in the kitchen'
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am