I am tired of building up somebody else’s civilization

I AM tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else’s civilization.
Let us take a rest, M’Lissy Jane.
I will go down to the Last Chance Saloon, drink a gallon or two of gin, shoot a game or two of dice and sleep the rest of the night on one of Mike’s barrels.
You will let the old shanty go to rot, the white people’s clothes turn to dust, and the Calvary Baptist Church sink to the bottomless pit.
You will spend your days forgetting you married me and your nights hunting the warm gin Mike serves the ladies in the rear of the Last Chance Saloon. 5
Throw the children into the river; civilization has given us too many. It is better to die than it is to grow up and find out that you are colored.
Pluck the stars out of the heavens. The stars mark our destiny. The stars marked my destiny.
I am tired of civilization.

Tired
Fenton Johnson

James Weldon Johnson, ed. (1871–1938). The Book of American Negro Poetry. 1922.

Some days you think it can all go to hell in a handbasket. I'm not quite that exhausted, but watching those pink clouds lay down on the horizon while the sun slid into bed made me think that I wouldn't feel too badly about crawling in bed a bit early tonight. It's cold cold cold, and today I'm a little bit tired of breaking up fights and telling kids to stop eating in the computer lab, quit using racial slurs, to put away cellphones and stop yelling across the room at each other. I think curling up with a book might just be what the spirit needs. The mindless drone of the television ain't doing it for me today. Then again, it never does.