The Once Bitter River | Teen Ink

The Once Bitter River

February 10, 2015
By NasiaThePerson SILVER, Mill Valley, California
NasiaThePerson SILVER, Mill Valley, California
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
In three words I can sum up everything I&#039;ve learned about life: it goes on.<br /> ~Robert Frost


The once bitter river

Is not so bitter anymore

The blood and gall and bile

No longer coats the shore

 

It filtered through our fingers

Many hands clasped as one

As we try to change these waters

From the bitter river it has become

 

And many of these fingers

Combing through the stones

Trace across the remnants

Of blood and of bones

 

These hands that hold each other

Can clean these waters once again

And we'll build a new bridge across it

With allies and with friends

 

And though in remote eddies

Resentment may still swirl

Along the banks of this changed river

New blossoms will unfurls

 

But how many bitter rivers

Will we have to cross

To repent for all those who have drowned

And for the ones we have loved and lost


The author's comments:

This was written as a response to Langston Hughes's poem Bitter River about racism and the lynching of a boy.


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