I'd just pressed send button when I remembered Anger in the Land, by Don West. As an anti-racist elegy, I think it deserves a place along Strange Fruit. O, there's grieving in the plum-grove And there's weeping in the weeds, There is sorrow in the shanty Where a broken body bleeds. For there's been another lynching And another grain of sand Swells the mountain of resentment— O, there's anger in the land! And a woman broods in silence Close beside an open door Flung across the flimsy door-step Lies a corpse upon the floor! You'll not ask me why I'm silent; Thus the woman spoke to me. Her two eyes blazed hot with anger And her throat throbbed agony. Let the wind go crying yonder In the tree-tops by the spring, Let its voice be soft and feeling Like it was a living thing. Once my heart could cry in sorrow Now it lies there in the floor In the ashes by the hearth-stone— They can't hurt it anymore! Did you ever see a lynching, Ever see a frenzied mob Mill around a swaying body When it's done the hellish job? O, there's grieving in the plum-grove And there's sobbing in the sands, There is sorrow in the shanties— And there's anger in the land!
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