New Year's Resolution

By Marcus B. Christian

Slowly I nailed this fenceboard up --

A black boy broke it down,

Jumping this nine-foot fence when chased

By drunkards of the town.

-- A boy just over fourteen

Broke it in frantic flight,

Eluding drunken hoodlums

On the Eve of Christmas night.

Taunted and jeered, he struck back

And forgot the final cost

And so, the white men ganged him

And everything was lost.

Fiercely I nail this fenceboard up

And swear -- by wrongs made blind --

There'll not be broken fenceboards

In the trail I'll leave behind.

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