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!
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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