In the hour of death,
In the day of judgment,
Good Lord, deliver us!
The Book of Common Prayer
The cornered and trapped,
The bludgeoned and crushed,
The hideously slain,
Freed from the dreaded waiting,
The tortured body's pain,
On death's far shore cast mangled shrouds
To clothe the damned whose fear
Decreed a poisoned harvest,
Garnered a bitter grain.
For these who wear the cloak of shame
Must eat the bread of gall,
Each vainly rubbing the 'cursed spot
Which brands him Cain.
April 1959
Written by Pauli Murray (1910-1985)
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