But—I wasn’t with you then.

That was before the colored man

Invented the game called Crap;

Before they cubed and spotted our sides,

And tossed us toward Fortune’s Lap.

But the world turned on in the lathe of time;

The hot sands heaved amain;

And our faces were polished with emery wheel—

Then between us they made a game.

At first they called us a “game of dice.”