Fugitive Poems Summary

In the poem "African China," Wu Shang, a Chinese man, has a shop in Harlem. A gorgeous, Amazonian-like black woman comes into the shop. Wu Shang is very attracted to her. Big John, a black gigolo, warns Wu Shang of his attraction, but Wu Shang says it's fine. Dixie Dixon, the woman, breaks her leg and Wu Shangs helps her home. They fall in love and have a child, a boy named Wu Shang, Junior. He is half African, half Chinese. The kids tease him and call him African China.

"A Long Head to a Round Head" starts in the wilderness with a camel, ocelot and peacocks. All can change and adapt to their environment somehow. The narrator names tyrants such as Caesar and Charles the Great. A tyrant is dangerous for the people, since he changes and adapts to his...