THE SCARLET WOMAN
by: Fenton Johnson (1888-1958)
 NCE I was
good like the Virgin Mary and the Minister's wife.
My father worked for Mr. Pullman and white people's tips; but
he died two days after his insurance expired.
I had nothing, so I had to go to work.
All the stock I had was a white girl's education and a face that
enchanted the men of both races.
Starvation danced with me.
So when Big Lizzie, who kept a house for white men, came to me
with tales of fortune that I could reap from the sale of my virtue
I bowed my head to Vice.
Now I can drink more gin than any man for miles around.
Gin is better than all the water in Lethe.
|
"The Scarlet Woman" is
reprinted from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed.
James Weldon Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922. |
MORE
POEMS BY FENTON JOHNSON |
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