Twilight in the Hood
By Stephanie Duke
If it be or if it would, I cannot see it for the woods. Should I stay or should I go? I must feel it
through the flow. Twilight in the Hood, I would move it if I could. Time and time again I hear
the haters and the baiters, children; why are you waiters? Don't you hear them calling? They
are calling you from the graves of old yesterday’s, from the time of wailing and sailing across
the sea, from a time of uncertainty and fear, a time when a mother held her child all so close
and dear.
From the time of the chains and shackles; don’t you hear their whispers? “You are free my sons
and daughters, now get back in order. In the order of God’s plan for you and in the order of
your birth and in the order of your worth, stand up and be counted and be proud of where you
come from and of whom you are in God. Don’t let what we went through be all for nothing. For
we struggled to survive with the hope that one day our children would be free and alive.”
Twilight in the Hood, I wish I may I wish I might see the first star tonight. What’s that mister did
I hear you whisper; two dimes and a coke and a nugget and a rope.
