The German Translation of this book was on the bookshelves of my parents, and I took it with me as I moved into my first apartment. I never forgot this story, and here are my thoughts wrapped up in a poem:

In Mississippi dust, a young boy wakes,
To streets where sunlight bends and breaks;
Fishbelly learns what silence costs,
How dreams can live, yet still be lost.

His father walks with careful pride,
With fear and power side by side;
A man who built where chains remained,
And paid in wounds for what he gained.

The town speaks low, the law stands tall,
But justice never comes for all;
Behind each smile, behind each door,
There waits the shadow of Jim Crow.

A long dream stretches through the night,
Of freedom just beyond his sight;
Yet waking means he has to see
The price of simply being free.

So Fish must choose: to stay, to flee,
To name the pain, to claim the key;
For dreams may bruise, but still they rise,
Like dawn reflected in tired eyes.

And on the plane, above that land,
He sits with trembling heart and hand;
A white attendant passes near,
And still his eyes are trained by fear.

Then suddenly the truth breaks through:
He looks - and nothing comes to do
The killing work that fear had planned;
No rope, no gun, no hateful hand.

For once, his glance does not mean death,
But simply air, and light, and breath;
The long dream cracks, the sky turns wide,
And Fish wakes free on the other side.