Color (Cullen)/Oh, for a Little While Be Kind

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Color
by Countee Cullen
Oh, for a Little While Be Kind
4101156Color — Oh, for a Little While Be KindCountee Cullen

For Love's Sake

Oh, for a Little While
Be Kind

(For Ruth Marie)

OH, for a little while be kind to me
Who stand in such imperious need of you,
And for a fitful space let my head lie
Happily on your passion’s frigid breast.
Although yourself no more resigned to me
Than on all bitter yesterdays I knew,
This half a loaf from sumptuous crumbs your shy
Reneging hand lets fall shall make me blest.
The sturdy homage of a love that throws
Its strength about you, dawn and dusk, at bed
And board, is not for scorn. When all is said
With final amen certitude, who knows
But Dives found a matchless fragrance fled
When Lazarus no longer shocked his nose?