Strange Fruit

As I was following the discussion on GodolHador and DovBear about Orthodoxy and Darfur and social responsibility towards gentiles, I thought of this chilling Billie Holiday song, based on a poem which was written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from New York.

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and at the root

Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck

For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop