who knows, better than we

Toss your gay heads, 

    Brown girl trees; 

Toss your gay lovely heads; 

Shake your downy russet curls 

All about your brown faces; 

Stretch your brown slim bodies; 

Stretch your brown slim arms; 

Stretch your brown slim toes. 

Who knows, better than we, 

With the dark, dark bodies, 

What it means 

When April comes laughing and aweeping 

Once again 

At our hearts? 

 

[Angelina Weld Grimké {1880-1958} 'At April', from The Language of Spring: Poems for the season of renewal]