Monday, December 07, 2020

WHITE TURNS TO BLACK

by Mary Clurman




i.

don’t know Black

don’t think Black

don’t speak Black

but like to listen

hear the sharp breaks

twists and turns


White is privilege.

In COVID

we garden

        cook

 think bitter thoughts

await a different regime.


ii.

Hasn’t changed yet!

Not for better:

Made the ballot secret 

  Blacks can’t vote if they can’t read—

can’t win anyway—

  Don’t even try!

  Only eggheads need good schools

   and what do eggheads know?

 Bus ‘em!
     so what,

      got no brains to think with anyway.

Then came jazz.

Music changed.

Boys of Summer

black, winning

Shut the doors!

  Keep ‘em out!

basketball 

Blues 

Hip-Hop


Thurgood Marshall Martin King Anita Hill

strong black middle class


iii.

Who was it

Packed the court,

just stacked ‘em in!

forgetting

           They still get to serve us coffee

coughing 

while our white blood flows as red as it can get. 


It’s time Whites learn from Black.



Mary Clurman, Princeton, NJ, retired Montessori teacher, struggling with the virus news and changing what I can.