Once riding through old Baltimore
Heart-filled, head filled with glee
I saw a Baltimorian
Keep looking straight at me

Now I was eight and very small
And he was not bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me "Nigger"

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December
But of all the things that happened there
That's all I remember

Countee Cullen, African American poet who wrote this poem when he was in his late 30's.