Candy Canes

Ten-year-old Henry sat on a wooden box beside a dirt road, holding a sign that read: 

'Candy Cane for Sale, 5 Cents a Pound'

See the night before all the slum kids in Jacksonville ran through Mr. Harrison's plantation

and picked all the cotton covered by the blood of slaves-

Candy cane cotton

It sold cheap,

It sold well,

White people would use it to stuff their pillows and line their quilts,

"Nothing like the blood of a Nigger to keep you warm at night"

Twelve-year-old Sula stood in a cobblestone doorway on Main Street, holding a sign that read:

'Candy Cane for Sale, 5 Cents a Night'

See the night before, Sula's Master, Mr. Johnson, decided it was 'bout time she began paying him back,

So he sent young virgin Sula to hold her sign and wait to leave her

Crimson virginity on the sheets of a bed she had never slept in before

Candy cane sheets

It sold cheap,

It sold well,

White men would fulfill fantasies here, sleep with the Devil here, 'Warning the black devil sleeps here'

"Nothing like the blood of a Nigger to keep you warm at night"

Seven-year-old James sat on a checkered blanket while his mother unpacked his picnic-

He held no sign

See, the night before, James' daddy raided a slave house and picked a Nigger to be lynched

at the picnic that day

Admission was free

White people from nearby towns crowded into the park

See, there was no candy cane for sale here

Because here, the blood of a Nigger would never be touched, let alone absorbed by anything white

"I'm surprised these devils even bleed"