5th Grade

During World War II, a young German girl, Rose Blanche, inadvertently discovers a concentration camp not far from her town. She travels there frequently, taking food to the children on the other side of the barbed wire and meets a haunted fate the day she discovers the camp is gone.

Although carefully planned at twilight so all animals can attend, things go terribly wrong during this walkabout. The group creates such a terrible hullabaloo that Namarrkun, the lightning man, is forced to show his strength.

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.