Sterling Brown - The Bitter Fruit of the Tree lyrics

They said to my grandmother: "Please do not be bitter," When they sold her first-born and let the second die, When they drove her husband till he took to the swamplands, And brought him home bloody and beaten at last. They told her, "It is better you should not be bitter, Some must work and suffer so that we, who must, can live, Forgiving is noble, you must not be heathen bitter; These are your orders: you are not to be bitter." And they left her shack for their porticoed house. They said to my father: "Please do not be bitter," When he ploughed and planted a crop not his, When he weatherstripped a house that he could not enter, And stored away a harvest he could not enjoy. They answered his questions: "It does not concern you, It is not for you to know, it is past your understanding, All you need know is: you must not be bitter." And they laughed on their way to reckon the crop, And my father walked over the wide garnered acres Where a cutting wind warned him of the cold to come.