Poet, novelist, playwright, and children’s book author Countee Cullen was born Countee LeRoy Porter on this day May 30, 1903.
A Brown Girl Dead
With two white roses on her breasts,
White candles at head and feet,
Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;
Lord Death has found her sweet.
Her mother pawned her wedding ring
To lay her out in white;
She’d be so proud she’d dance and sing
To see herself tonight.
-Countee Cullen
