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
