A Poem by Angelina Weld Grimké
Featured in Kevin Young's New Anthology of African American Poetry
The Black Finger
I have just seen a most beautiful thing
Slim and still
Against a gold, gold sky,
A straight black cypress,
Sensitive,
Exquisite,
A black finger
Pointing upwards.
Why, beautiful still finger, are you black?
And why are you pointing upwards?
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Excerpted from African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young. Compilation copyright © 2020 by Library of America. Used by permission of the publisher.