New Year's Resolution

Slowly I nailed this fenceboard up --
A black boy broke it down,
Jumping this nine-foot fence when chased
By drunkards of the town.

-- A boy just over fourteen
Broke it in frantic flight,
Eluding drunken hoodlums
On the Eve of Christmas night.

Taunted and jeered, he struck back
And forgot the final cost
And so, the white men ganged him
And everything was lost.

Fiercely I nail this fenceboard up
And swear -- by wrongs made blind --
There'll not be broken fenceboards
In the trail I'll leave behind.