La Vaca, by Alice Walker

La Vaca

Look

into

her eyes

and know:

She does not think

herself

steak.

* La vaca, "the cow" in Spanish.

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As if I’ve swallowed A watermelon And Sidestepping My digestive tract

Word reaches us that you are sleeping, sleeping. Dismayed we have turned to the sea. We encounter among others

Did you ever understand this? If my spirit was poor, how could… Was I depressed? Understanding editing, I see how a comma, removed or inse…

Before I leave the stage I will sing the only song I was meant truly to sing. It is the song of I AM.

When you thought me poor, my poverty was shaming. When blackness was unwelcome we found it best that I stay home.

Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise. become a stranger To need of pity Or, if compassion be freely

To change the world enough you must cease to be afraid of the poor. We experience your fear as the lea… humiliations; in the past

If my sorrow were deeper I’d be, along with you, under the ocean’s floor; but today I learn that the oil that pools beneath the ocean floor

My brothers knew The things you know. I did not scorn learning them; It’s just my mind

I have a friend who is turning gray, not just her hair, and I do not know why this is so.

The old men used to sing And lifted a brother Carefully Out the door I used to think they

When the people have won a victory whether small or large do you ever wonder

I Sing of Mumia brilliant and strong and of the captivity that few black men escape

Knowing you might some day come and how unprepared I’ve always been like Mr. Sloppy in Charles Dickens’

If I was President The first thing I would do is call Mumia Abu—Jamal. No, if I was president