The Town Fathers

By Melvin B. Tolson 1898–1966

At the Courthouse Square

On the Fourth of July,

Beneath Old Glory’s

Pyrotechnic sky,

The town fathers met,

Minus Bible and rye.

Against the statue

Of Confederate dead

The Mayor spat

His snuff and said,

“We need a slogan!”

And he palmed his head.

The Sheriff’s idioms

Dynamited assent.

The Judge croaked a phrase

Latinistically bent.

And the Mayor pondered

With official intent.

On a neon billboard,

As high as a steeple,

The travelers puzzle

The amazing sequel:

The Blackest Land

And The Whitest People.

Melvin Tolson, "The Town Fathers" from Harlem Gallery and Other Poems of Melvin B. Tolson (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1999)

Source: "Harlem Gallery" and other Poems of Melvin B. Tolson (University Press of Virginia, 1999)

Biography

Known for his complex, challenging poetry, Melvin B. Tolson earned little critical attention throughout most of his life, but he eventually won a place among America's leading black poets. He was, in the opinion of Allen Tate, author of the preface to Tolson's Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, the first black poet to assimilate "completely the full poetic language of his time and, by implication, the language of the . . .

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