Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, refuses to wed interracial couples. "I'm not a racist," Bardwell said. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, I let them use my bathroom..."
Fact is, there's a Black fella in there now
Hey! What you up to, Willis?
Ha, ha, he's okay, just takin' a piss
Gotta be careful around Hispanics
I said - Careful - no need to panic
A-rabs and Jews is like Abel and Cain
But I'll marry the desert thieves, all the same
America went straight to hell thanks to de-segregation
Worst damn abomination on this nice little nation
Liberals like to lisp about piano keys
Your Ebonys, Your Ivories
But lissen up, son, and old Keith'll tell y'all where it's at
White is sharp and Black is flat
Steve Hellyard Swartz, a regular contributor to New Verse News, has piles and piles of poems ready to be published. He has won Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg, Mary C. Mohr, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. In 2009, poems of his were published in The Paterson Review and The Southern Indiana Review. In 1990, Never Leave Nevada, which he wrote and directed, opened at The U.S. Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He was recently selected Poet Laureate of Schenectady County in upstate New York.
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