Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
What is truth, and what is not?
Do the Justices agree?
In your skin of ebony
...
She is woman... and much abused:
Her lovely womb and breasts and buttocks were infused
With sordid meaning, twisted thought,
By vain imagination packaged, sold, and bought.
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Our grieving father Abraham — of faithful hearts the head —
Had bargained for a Hittite cave where he could place his dead,
His spouse and sister Sarah, who was partner in God's will
To bring the promised blessing, which their Offspring would fulfill.
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If you can stay a virgin, while all about you,
Others toy with sex, and play that game without you;
If tempted just as friends are on the campus scene,
You don’t give in, but keep your heart and body clean;
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Paint clouds that really rain
And noisy, running streams,
Or birds that can take flight
And sing beyond your dreams,
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I sing the body immortal,
inborn longing, reflexive wish, certain vision
of flesh immune to death's decay and death.
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Grief is the stretch beyond the pain,
A long and bitter-sweet refrain.
I trace again a trail we walked,
...