YOUR bony head, Jazbo, O dock walloper,
Those grappling hooks, those wheelbarrow handlers,
The dome and the wings of you, nigger,
The red roof and the door of you,
I know where your songs came from.
I know why God listens to your, Walk All Over Gods Heaven.
I heard you shooting craps, My babys going to have a new dress.
I heard you in the cinders, Im going to live anyhow until I die.
I saw five of you with a can of beer on a summer night and I listened to the five of you
harmonizing six ways to sing, Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield.
I went away asking where I come from.
Singing Nigger
written byCarl Sandburg
© Carl Sandburg