My Classmates From School Ten Poem by Shalom Freedman

Alberta Conway is dead
My first girl friend
At the age of two
We held hands
In Washington Park-
Francis Malise is dead
With black pigtails
Always the nicest girl
To everyone in our class-
Rudolph Stinney is dead
The Preacher's son
Cocoa colored tall with the angel's voice-

My classmates from School Ten,
We grew up for a while together
Now they are in the ground
And I am still here
More than sixty years later-

It's been a long journey-

I see them in my mind now
Exactly as they were then -


Oh God what becomes of all of us
Oh God for these children,
No longer here.