Incident

"Incident" is the fourth song of Tom Cipullo's song cycle Climbing: 7 Songs on 8 Poems by African-Americans.

Date: 2000Composer: Tom CipulloText: Countee CullenSong Collection: Climbing: Poems by African-Americans

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Text

Incident
by Countee Cullen

(For Eric Walrond)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

Related Information

Sheet Music

Climbing: Poems by African-Americans

Composer(s): Tom Cipullo

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