Poetry: Diamonds and Gold

Here's to freedom--EVERYWHERE.

* * *

by Alice Walker

What can I give you for a day when the inequality of the world strikes you as so blatant that you are at a loss for words? When you weep instead of speak? . . . I can give you this poem:

THE DIAMONDS ON LIZ’s BOSOM

The diamonds on Liz’s bosom
are not as bright
as his eyes
the morning they took him
to work in the mines.
The rubies in Nancy’s
jewel box (Oh, how Ronald loves red!)
not as vivid
as the despair
in his children’s
frowns.
Oh, those Africans!

Everywhere you look
they’re bleeding
and crying
Crying and bleeding
on some of the whitest necks
in your town.


WE ALONE

We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you.
Feathers, shells,
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what is scarce.