Maya Angelou, We Wear The Mask

I have uh written a poem for a woman who rides a bus in New York City she's a maid she has two shopping bags when the bus stops abruptly she laughs if the bus stops slowly she laughs if the bus picks up someone she laughs if the bus misses someone she so I watched her for about nine months I thought muh now if you don't know black features you may think she's laughing but she wasn't laughing she was simply extending her lips and making a sound I said oh I see that's that survival apparatus now let me write about that to honor this woman who helps us to survive by her very survival Miss Rosie through your destruction I stand up so I use the poem with Mr Paul Lawrence dunbar's poem masks and my own poem for old black man Mr Dunbar wrote masks in 1892 we wear the mask that Grins and lies it Shades our cheeks and hides our eyes this debt we pay to human gu with torn and bleeding heart we smile and mouth with myriad subtleties why should the world be overwise in counting all our tears and sze and they let them only see us while we wear the mask we smile but oh my God our tears to thee from tortured Souls arise and we sing hey baby V we sing hey but oh the clay is vile beneath our feet and long the mile but let the world think otherwise we wear the mask when I think about myself I almost laugh myself to death my life has been one great big joke a dance that's walked a song was spoke I laughed so hard I almost choke when I think about myself 70 years in these folks world the child I works for calls me girl I say yes ma'am for working sake I'm Too Proud to bend and too po to break so I laugh until my stomach ache when I think about myself my folks can make me split my side I laugh so hard I nearly died the tales they tell sound just like lying they grow the fruit but ether rind I [Laughter] laugh until I start to cry when I think about myself and my folks and the little children my fathers sit on benches their flesh count every plank the rats leave dents of Darkness deep in their withered flank and they gnawed like broken candles all waxed and burnt profound they say but sugar it was our submission that made your world go round there in those pleated faces I see The Auction Block the chains and slavery coffles the Whip and lash and stock my fathers speak in voices that shred my f and sound they say but sugar it was our submission and that made your world go around they laughed to Shield their crying they shuffled through their dreams they Ste and fetched a country and wrote The Blues in screams I understand their meaning it could and did derive from living on the ledge of death they kept my race Alive by wearing the mask [Laughter] ha

Channel: tparbs

Views: 680,851

Keywords: Maya Angelou, The Mask, For Old Black Men, Slavery, poetry

Id: _HLol9InMlc

Length: 4min 43sec (283 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2017