From minds
pickled and spiked with fear as a child’s,
But without that
haphazard splotch of ‘the milk
Of human
kindness’ that a child may spill
Or chance to
glean –
Sleeping in
lice-less heads on pillows too clean
To wake from,
came laws. Rancid the long while,
One grew moldy
and the other one dry,
An orange peel
twisting against a snakeskin:
Our truths
self evident, and the Constitution,
Ground down
and dispensed in blinding, acerbic pinches,
Scattered on balding
counters and old park benches
And the fuzzed grass of pool hall tables. Why
Would a white
judge hear in the knocking hollow
Of clay balls
carefully numbered and striped
Ominous echoes
of the battle outside,
Waged in
theatres,
Drug stores, in
beds? He understood correctly and feared
The fatal
formation of friendships, which is followed
By the working
together of juvenile delinquents, set to labor,
Black and
white,
By the lying
together of married lovers, one with the other,
Black and
white,
By the Hallelujah
singing together of sisters and brothers –
As we do at
Second Baptist today!
Our uniform
turquoise shifts are ablaze,
Stretching or
flapping against each upraised
Many-hued and
holy ribcage,
Swelled with our
dazzling, our lovely,
Our black and
white praise!
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