WHITESTOWN (a Kwansaba)
Photo by Keith M. Kelley
“Whitestown”
Proudly painted
On the water tower-
On the all-white… water tower.
Must be a “sundown town.”
Black folks still need
Green Books!
ATTENTION TO GROWTH (a Blitz)
Pay it forward
Pay attention
Attention to details
Attention deficit disorder
Disorder driven by delusions
Disorder in the court
Court of law
Court of public opinion
Opinion is subjective
Opinion cares not for facts
Facts overwhelmed by fiction
Facts are based in reality
Reality television
Reality for those who cannot handle drugs
Drugs taken to self-medicate
Drugs that numb
Numb the senses
Numb the pain
Pain is a signal
Pain from trauma
Trauma begets trauma
Trauma often haunts survivors
Survivors of tragedy
Survivors of abuse
Abuse by caretakers
Abuse of power
Power perceived to be absolute
Power to the people
People make the world go round
People are followers
Followers seeking messiahs
Followers of false prophets
Prophets still exists
Prophets are not motivated by profit
Profit in the eyes of stockholders
Profit is why corporations cannot be trusted
Trusted to act in the interests of the people
Trusted to do what is right
Right is not always profitable
Right here right now
Now is the time to do the right thing
Now is the best time to act
Act like the adult in the room
Act like you know better
Better is not necessarily best
Better merely implies growth
Growth and development
Growth can be be stunted
Stunted
Development
THE DISCO BALL IN THE SULZER LIBRARY (a Sonnet)
BEHIND THE POEM: On January 2, 2019, I attended a “Write In; Read Out” hosted by the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio. The event featured a 4-hour writing session in the Sulzer Library followed by a 2-hour reading of participants’ work at a local pub. The Writer’s Studio projected wrting prompts and offered suggestions on way to play with language. However, I was inspired by the disco ball on the ceiling (pictured above). The following is one of the pieces I wrote.
Dangling motionless above the silence,
A disco ball hangs in the library.
A vacuum cleaner whines its defiance
to patrons focused and sedentary.
While discos have long since gone out of style,
Their glass-covered balls liven up a space
Whenever they’re spun in the light. Meanwhile
The disco ball screams that it’s out of place.
A room full of writers working on scripts.
All that’s heard is faint scratching from ink pens,
keyboard clicks, page turnings, and zippers zips.
Brought together as colleagues if not friends.
Some people nod and smile to be polite.
This place seems too quiet for me to write.
HAIKU OF THE DAY 11302018
Messenger: St. Louis woman did 20 days in jail for speeding; now rural Missouri judge wants her for 6 more months.
1.
Yet another case
Of mass incarceration
Targeting black folk.
2.
She was: caught speeding,
Did her time, and paid her fines.
But that’s not enough.
3.
The deal was bogus.
HATE OF BLACK (a Blitz)
Breathing while black
Breathing fresh air polluted by hate
Hate is suffocating
Hate of non-white skin
Skin is only skin deep
Skin should not determine privilege
Privilege bestowed upon the white
Privilege denied to the black
Black America is a lost colony
Black America is still America
America the united states of
America the beautiful
Beautiful people
Beautiful conceptually speaking
Speaking to the base
Speaking in English that is broken
Broken like truths held self-evident
Broken like promises of freedom
Freedom denied
Freedom of speech
Speech is costly
Speech is wasted
Wasted like education
Wasted like victims of being black
Black America is a lost colony
Black America is still America
America the united states of
America the beautiful
Beautiful minds give birth to
Beautiful dreams
Dreams of paid debts
Dreams we wake up and forget
Forget black history never taught
Forget to keep breathing
Breathing while black
Breathing fresh air polluted by hate
Hate destroys
Hate consumes like fires
Fires that rage after droughts
Fires next time Baldwin wrote about
About race
About face
Face the music we try not to hear
Face the nation has a bad track record with colored people
People with vaginas people with penises who love people with penises
People perpetually persecuted through prison pipelines for being black
Black America is still America
Black America is American
American
America
TODDLER BODY SEARCHES (for the women, children and families of the Reunification Rides)
Children are the “collateral damage”
when their mothers are incarcerated.
Grandparents are often left to manage
Little people to whom they’re related
The separation anxiety,
Angry misbehavior, and confused rage
Would test even a saint’s sobriety
Trying to explain why mom’s in a cage!
Legal aid, circle keepers, and churches
Try to mitigate familial schisms.
Toddlers subjected to body searches
To visit their mommies inside prisons.
Thankfully, Reunification Rides
Help families cope while moms are inside.
PASSIVE MICRO-AGGRESSION, IMPLICIT BIAS & KARMA (a short true “_______ while being black” story)
A woman puts her laptop and coat on the next table, looks right past me, and asks the white woman on the other side of me to watch her stuff! Karma is funny. The white woman left moments after she went to stand in line! I smiled at her when she returned, and saw the vacant seat next to me.
