Shea's Buffalo Theater 1955 Poem by Glen Martin Fitch

'No animals were harmed during the filming of this production.'
American Humane Association 1980

Across the screen
a cowboy rides the plain.
We watched.
He stops.
I bounced on grandma's knee.
An arrow flies.
His horse rears up in pain
and falls and dies.
I cried.
She laughed at me.
Now, tell me
did her German cousin
chide the Nazi's rise
or praise it out of fear?
And did my father's mother's cousin
hide a slave or own one?
Now the choice seems clear.
At five I knew injustice.
Didn't you?
(At every age we think
we know it all)
Which thoughtless act
we do without a clue
will bring us shame-
our grandchildren appall?
Those innocent but wise
may show us how to be
tomorrow's honored hero now.