I Am Mankind
I cry when I think what man
…………has done to man,
….Because I am the oppressed
…………and the oppressor.
I have caused deaths;
….I have died.
I have been tormentor;
….I have suffered.
I am mankind crying and laughing.
I have died in Hiroshima,
…………………………………. Dachowe,
………………………………………………. Arizona,
……………………………………………………………Mississippi,
I dropped the bomb on that little island.
I made lampshades from human skin,
I turned the snarling dogs on the Negro.
Naked, I cried at my mother’s side before the ovens.
Brazen, I laughed when I sentenced them to death.
Just as I am Sachi Yamuki,
………. I am Airman Frank Smith.
Just as I am Medgar Evers,
………. I am his white asssasin.
Just as I am Ann Frank,
………. I am Adolph Eichmann.
Just as I am Running Deer,
………. I am Senator Ratner (R. Ariz.)
My being depends upon the heterogeneous group of
………. Men ;
Yet I insist on destroying myself.
I kill my Asians,
………………………………Jews,
………………………………………. Indians,
…………………………………………………… Blacks,
……………………………………………………………… Myself.
I am the puzzling paradox of the universe and time.
I am the Schizophrenic, Mankind.
I ask, when will I lose my evil self?
Tell me, will I abolish the evil in me?
Answer me please, before I destroy myself.
by Kathleen McGrath
from Essence Magazine
Paterson State College Press, 1963
…I have died.
…………
…………