Children Know Better Poem by Eric Cockrell

my best friend
back in the second grade
(early sixties south)

was a black boy named Gary...
it was the first year they'd
integrated schools... and

we just liked each other...
just boys being boys...
and we hung together all year...

sadly, he couldnt come to my house,
and i couldnt go to his...
there was still a lot of tension then,

and everybody was afraid....
except us... we figured we
were just people, just boys....

sometimes the children
know better than the adults!