Sarah Collins Fernandis, "The Cry Supreme" (1918)
Dedicated to the Red Cross work of the colored women of Baltimore
OUT of the throes of her great counter-strife,
Pitted against brutish invading Hun,
Who would by force and frightfulness o'er-run
Established law, and strangle out her life,
Civilization's cry rises and rends
Our souls. Her brave manhood's last, dying groan;
For ruthless devastation, Age's moan;
And the pity-compelling sound that sends
Our red blood swifter, womanhood's deep wail
Of nameless torture; childhood's frightened scream,
All intermingle in the cry supreme
That calls for answer where we dare not fail.
O, God, we fold and knit and sew, and pray
For deftness and endowment of more power,
To meet the need of the world's testing hour
That verges upon Victory's new day!
Published in Southern Workman, September 1918