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Fer de debil ter dis day,W'eneber he sees nigger folks,Goes lopin' t'other way.
The OutlookLouise Ayres Garnett


SALEM, CONDITA 1626
So you visited Salem?And you saw the Witch HouseAnd Gallows Hill?And the House of Seven Gables,And Hawthorne's birthplace?But you did not see Salem.How could you?It has been shut up in my heart for forty years.I think I was the last who saw it.
How could you see Salem?You never lived with maiden auntsWho remembered better daysAnd nothing else.You never went to schoolNext a graveyardTo a grim old dame whoDenounced youth and pleasureWith savage Scripture readings.
You never peeped, with splendid awe,Beneath closed blindsTo see wraiths of womenNursing life-long grudges or heart pangsShut in from the light of day.

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