African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Allison Davis, "Northern--College Girl" (1928)

Northern - College Girl

The chief thing
You learned from your northern training
Was how to be a sycophant with men,
And excuse your parasitism
By calling it love.

Now you teach high school in the week,
And wisely go to your “man” out of town
For the week-ends.

I pity you.
I know how often you’ve wished
You were dead,
When you faced
Your mother,
After those week-ends.


Published in The Crisis, March 1928