Wanting To Desert

A Negro who got rich did stray

To claim he was not of the race,

But all the world could only say

He was a fool and sore disgrace.



You cannot change your skin, my man,

For Nature made you as you are;

Your wish to break your fatlier's clan

Is ignorance that goes too far.



The woman of another race

You choose to share your fortune with

And have her take your motlier's place

May slay you as in Siren's myth.



And when you find the deed unwise

It will be late, too late to mend,

For then the race you did despise

Will count you out with traitor's end.