A Southern Line Poem by Thomas James Martin

Part 4

Curtis Theater again,
It's the Place to Be
In Liberty N. C.
Swannanoa Street

Out of the sewing plants and tobacco fields
Apparitions in the balcony

The heads of black children
Rising like black balloons
At the edge of darkness,
So Silent
Silent and waiting.

Waving at our friends,
Semi-darkness,
Saturday Matinee

Nobody waves to the balcony.

We sit screaming and throwing popcorn,
Waiting for the Old Rebel to speak,
He's a TV star from Greensboro
don't you know;

It's 1956,
Nobody's heard of Woolworth's
And the sit-ins;

Balcony corner,
Curtis Theater,
Liberty, North Carolina
Swannanoa, etc.

(Put a little moonlight here
so we can see their faces.)