"Revelations," by Sterling A. Brown

"Why do folks call you revelations?"
"It used to be because I preached from that Book. But now because I reveals."
TALKS WITH THE VILLAGE HALFWIT

I shall recall
As a sinister omen,
That which was pity
For full-bosomed women,—

That which was laughter
For idling men;
Bundle of rags,
And tattered brain,

Cadaverous cheeks,
And bloodshot eyes,

And wide mouth mumbling

Obscenities,

Or echoes from childhood's
Store of rhyme
Or scraps of religion
Near sublime. . . .

I shall remember
Troubledly, long,
His cracked voice
Wheezing out his song:

"You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yo'self
Nobody heah can a-walk it for you
You gotta walk it by yo-self."

And this comment
From wisdom not his own
"Man wanta live,
Man wanta find himself
Man gotta learn
How to go alone."

Always now with me
The halfwit's text,
Sour truth for my wits
Poor, perplexed,

"If man's life goes
Beyond the bone
Man must go lonely
And alone,
Unhelped, unhindered
On his own. . . ."

-Sterling A. Brown