Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Yearning to Breathe Free

Rest in peace Claude Sitton

who has died
at the age of 89. 

Even if he had not received
due recognition
in the form of a Pulitzer Prize

for his on-the-ground
civil rights reporting

for the News & Observer
in this poet's home state
of North Carolina

his work would have been
no less important

just as those
who were ever referred to
as the so-called huddled masses

if at all.

This poem © 2015 Emily Cooper.