“It is dangerous for a woman to defy the gods;
To taunt them with the tongue’s thin tip.”
 
   Anne Spencer, “Letter to My Sister”

 

 

Oh, she would not bow her eyes

And she could not tell him lies

And she would not be his pawn

 

He can’t abide the words she speaks

Her tongue’s a slap across his cheek

And she would not meet the dawn.

 

No one will stand for your arrogance.

 

What did the black man tell the cop

As they stood at the traffic stop

That made a hand reach for a gun?

 

And he won’t have time to figure

The killing word that pulled the trigger

And he will not meet the sun.

 

No one will stand for your arrogance.

 

There is a list of names that grows

A book of rules that no one knows

Til the day you cross the line

 

The way a wolf wants a sheep

The way your nightmare wants your sleep

You’re a time bomb in a policeman’s eye.

 

No one will stand for your arrogance.