African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Joseph S. Cotter, "Dr. Booker T. Washington To the National Negro Business League" (1909)

DR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TO THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 
 
 'Tis strange indeed to hear us plead 
  For selling and for buying 
 When yesterday we said: "Away 
 With all good things but dying." 
 The world's ago, and we're agog 
 To have our first brief inning; 
 So let's away through surge and fog 
 However slight the winning. 
 What deeds have sprung from plow and pick! 
 What bank-rolls from tomatoes! 
 No dainty crop of rhetoric 
 Can match 'one of potatoes. 
 Ye orators of point and pith, 
 Who force the world to heed you, 
 What skeletons you'll journey with 
 Ere it is forced to feed you. 
 A little gold won't mar our grace, 
 A little ease our glory. 
 This world's a better biding place 
 When money clinks its story. 


Published in Joseph S. Cotter, A White Song and a Black One, 1909

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