Black Cross (1948)

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Black Cross (also known as Hezekiah Jones, after the main character) is a poem by Joseph Simon Newman, published in his 1948 collection It Could Be Verse!.[1]

Storyline

Verses

There was Old Hezekiah Jones, of Hogback County.

He lived on a hill in a weather beaten hovel.

And all that he owned was a two-acre plot

with a bed and some books and a hoe and a shovel.


Old Hezekiah, black as the soil he was hoeing,

Worked pretty hard to make both ends meet.

Raised what he ate, with a few cents over

To buy corn liquor that he drank down neat,


And a few cents more that he put in the cupboard

Against what he called "the rainy season,"

But he never got to save more'n two or three dollars

Till he spent it for this or that reason.


The white folks around knew old Hezekiah...

Said, "Well, he’s harmless enough, but the way that I figure

He better put down them goddamn books,

'Cause reading ain't no good for an ignorant nigger."


Reverend Green, of the white man's church,

Finally got around to "comin' over

To talk with you-all about the Pearly Kingdom

An' to save your soul for the Lord Jehovah!"


"Do you believe in the Lord?" said the white man's preacher.

Ol’ Hezekiah puckered his frosty brow,

Say, "I can't say 'yes,' so I ain't gonna say it,

‘Cause I’ve never seen de Lord....nowhere....no-how."


“Do you believe in the church?” said the white man's preacher,

Ol’ Hezekiah said, “Well, er, ah, the church is divided,

If they can’t make up their minds, I can’t either.

So, I’m just like them,” say, “I ain’t decided.”


“Do you believe in Heaven?” said the white man’s preacher.

"Where you go, if’n you're good, for your last reward?"

"I'm good," said Hezekiah, "good as I'm able,

But I don't expect nothing from Heaven OR the Lord."


"You don't believe nothin'," said the white man's preacher.

"Oh yes I do," said Hezekiah,

"I believe that a man should be beholding to his neighbor

Without the reward of Heaven or the fear of hell fire."


“Well, there's a lot of good ways for a man to be wicked!”

And they hung Hezekiah as high as a pigeon,

And the nice folks around said, "well, he had it comin'

'Cause the son-of-a-bitch didn't have no religion!"

Performances

References

  1. Joseph Simon Newman. It Could Be Verse!. 1948. World Publishing Co. Retrieved January 30, 2021.