"The Last Quatrain Of The Ballad Of Emmett Till"

30 May 2018:

"The Last Quatrain Of The Ballad Of Emmett Till" 

(after the murder,
after the burial)

Emmett's mother is a pretty-faced thing;
the tint of pulled taffy.
She sits in a red room,
drinking black coffee.
he kisses her killed boy.
And she is sorry.
Chaos in windy grays
through a red prairie.

We talked about this Gwendolyn Brooks poem in my class today. I am still thinking about it hours later, as I always do when I read it. I worry that we will forget about Emmett and Mamie Till and we need to remember them.