Graciela Echenique, age 20
Birmingham, Alabama
August 3, 1924

I have known men built like railroads:
Steel, steam, the whistle warning all
Flesh to stay away. I have known men
Made like rivers that run wild and cold
In the spring, that meander through
The bottomlands, that dry up and desert
The life they carry along. I have known
Men fashioned like pistols: the less
Said of them the better. I once met
A man I swear was made of butter:
One taste and his flesh melted away.

I have known men who claimed to be
Preachers, healers, truth-tellers,
Fortune-tellers, bank robbers, grave
Robbers, supermen, front men,
Side men, salesmen, highway men,

A man’s man and man’s gift to God,
But I have never met a man
Who would not lie to get out of love,
Nor a man who would not steal
To satisfy whatever hunger held him
Down. Down in the dumps. Down
In the depths where there is no coal,
No gold and no soul. I have never
Known a man who wasn’t afraid
Of dying, who didn’t think killing
Was a way to conquer that fear.