BLACK-WHITE COUPLE

(Best appreciated as set in the days these were novelties in white communities and coal was the staple domestic fuel.  BTW poet is white.)

I am black as coal that gives our home heat;
You white as the milk we drink and bread eat.
Without me you would shiver in life’s cold,
Without you I would starve ere I grow old.
Together we live in holy wedlock,
Our faith and faithfulness be our great rock.
Our mixed-race children bear proud our surname,
And bear their blended colour without shame.