White Men Writing Race

 

​

A liberal is someone who thinks he knows more

about your experience than you do.                                                                                 

                                          -       James Baldwin

 

There is a wise white woman in

my life, counting dead black people.

They break her pulse, her heart.

That’s real. She etches names

into a journal, copper markers

in her garden. She says, “Feel

like maybe it’s someone else’s

story, and I should stick to dandelions.”

Blowball fruits blown into air,

an untenable lawn. High flying

single seeds. Everything about this

poem tells me, Get out of the way.

 

 

 

First Publication: New Verse News, September 23, 2017