• A SONG IN THE FRONT YARD

I've stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose.
I want to go in the back yard now
And maybe down the alley,
To where the charity children play.
I want a good time today.

They do some wonderful things.
They have some wonderful fun.
My mother sneers, but I say it's fine
How they don't have to go in at quarter to nine.
My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae
Will grow up to be a bad woman.
That George'll be taken to Jail soon or late
(On account of last winter he sold our back gate).

But I say it's fine. Honest, I do.
And I'd like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with paint on my face.
Gwendolyn Brooks, 1945

• Imagem: Capa do novo cd de Maria de Barros, a sair em Março de 2009. Não me canso de dizer: Maria de Barros, além de uma excelente artista, é das poucas cabo-verdiana(o)s do show business que se preocupam com os mais desfavorecidos (saudaçõs ao Mário Lúcio!). Ave, Maria! God Bless You.