David Greenhood, "Bread Winners" (1935)

Note: This poem was published in the July 9, 1935 issue of the communist cultural weekly, the New Masses.*

The sheriff home, his bloodhounds fed,
    Thwacks his hands and cracks his bread
       --Some skin is black, all blood is red--
            He soaks his corns and goes to bed.

The judge is home, the sentence said.
    With crabbed hands he cuts his bread
       --Some skin is white, all blood is red--
            He scrubs his teeth and goes to bed.

The hangman home with hanging head
    Has defter thumbs to butter bread
       --Some skin is black, all blood is red--
            He doffs his truss and goes to bed.

Beholders at the gallows-shed
    Come home with clammy hands for bread
       --Some skin is white, all blood is red--
            They scan their tongues and go to bed.

The undertaker's bathed the dead
    With fingers washed he breaks his bread
       --Some skin is black, all blood is red--
            He blows his nose and goes to bed.

* New Masses 16, 2 (July 9, 1935), p. 11.