Emmett Till | Teen Ink

Emmett Till

February 6, 2009
By KristaGoldsmith BRONZE, Cave Creek, Arizona
KristaGoldsmith BRONZE, Cave Creek, Arizona
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Hello my name is Emmett Till,
Listen to this story, if you will.

It all began when I asked my mom-
Can I go visit my cousin in Mississippi?
I promise- I wont stay for long.

She said okay, but listen first.
Racism there is far the worst.
She told me how the whites treat people of my kind,
and said not to make mistakes, because you can not rewind.

So I waved goodbye to my mom around noon,
And said I love you! I'll be back soon!
She waved back with tears in her eyes,
and as the train drove away, I could hear her cries.

My family picked me up and we went to the store,
To get food, water, candy, and more.
On the way out there was a pretty white girl.
I said, "Hey baby" and my heart did a whirl.

When I was sleeping that night,
Two men took me away.
They said you whistled at a white girl,
and now your gonna pay.

They took me away and shot my head,
and broke my nose- I was covered in red.
Then they hung me- hung me so high!
I barely even had time to cry.

They then wrapped barbed wire around my neck,
And threw me into a river,
I was a wreck.
Now I hope that you can see,
It wasn't easy being me.

The author's comments:
I am not really Emmett Till, my name is Krista. I wrote the poem from his point of view. Him and his mom didn't use the exact words I used in the poem. I had a project in my english class on Civil Rights and we had an option to write a poem about it. My teacher and classmates thought my poem was really good, and my teacher wanted me to post it on teen ink. I hope you like it!

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