Race ( from That New Millennium Dime)

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saffire

Granny said/

“you will lie in the pit/you dig

for ‘an-other’ ” /how you sleep/?/

here in the pit/where

we lie/side by side/ in the same open grave/pitted against

one another/ cain & able forever/?/how you sleep/has

your god been watching/?/do you pray

with the same mouth/ that sucked at

my great great great gramma’s bloody tears/hollered

sold american/

nigger/kike/spic/wop/chink/spook/slant/beaner/dego/sand nigger/camel jockey/

jungle bunny/jig a boo/?/

how you sleep/?/

?spooked/

do you dream of brown hands/

wake sweating/vowing

to kill them all/so

you can breathe/

w/0 fear of

retribution/do you dream of severed breast/broken bodies/are you

greedy/in your sleep/?/how do you sleep/

w/yr bi-racial grandchildren waiting for your death/the

brown-eyed ones that are ashamed of you/how will you answer god/?/

when he ask you about his children/

do you dream in burning crosses/bodies flopping behind trucks/dogs at throats/shooting first and yelling stop over dead bodies/corpses swaying from trees/the smell of burning genitals/?/how you sleep

do you ever fear drowning in oceans/of grief

crafted by you/are you fettered

by your fictions/what if we are human/what will your god say/

how do you sleep

/do your sins trail you like a caravan

of bodies chained to one another/

full coffins/full coffers/

empty souls/

futile lives/

afraid of the dark/ more afraid

of the light/forever

fearing the morning after/ & the sound

of my laughter/?/ how you sleep/

when the chatter

from the boneyard is deafening/how you sleep

on the edge of an open grave/?/how

you sleep