prelude
language could help
us build the truth
wake it from where
it sleeps if used like
surgeons knives
to cut past the fat
the augmentations of
smoke and mirror
language has ever been
a weapon always in the
beginning light cut dark on
command the words
opening the void so
we could come forth
stumbling into being
fragile and interdependent
they say the Godz confounded
language confusing understanding
from that time to this moment
then man stole the fire
& ran through the forest willy nilly
setting fires…
Race Card
we don’t discuss race
have the servants sweep it under
the carpet its indelicate most likely
politically incorrect things might be
said we can’t take back leaving us
naked without the protection of
manufactured innocence our eyes
would have to open we would have
to watch our backs out loud the truth
will set you free to experience reality
without commercials you would have
to wear your hate like rappers wear chains
that say I am somebody so strangers
recognize that they reside above the fold your
fear would babble in front of you like
scampering imps holding hands with
your greed skipping in lockstep through
your closed mind
we don’t discuss race
we load words to do dirty work washing
our hands like Pilate before saying the words
that crucified Christ
no fingerprints on the weapon
used to other
slander negate marginalize to fringe thought
playing word games
with deadly outcomes
reducing reality to quips
race card
unpack it
show me what’s
inside that cannon that
so effectively minimizes the
effect of melanin how it colors
more than skin reaches into
perception spawning misconceptions
planting it self like an elephant
on the table in the middle
of most of the rooms in this
crooked house of cards
where those words shut
down discussions of how
right is right and right don’t wrong
nobody who coined the phrase
to make the topic hysterical
irrational loaded it with self
pity in order to drown the
embers banked inside
to erect a wall behind which to hide
to buy shovels for the growing
divide if the questions terrify
what does the answer carry inside
race card
is it like ?freedom papers
?south African papers
?the right answers in a stop and frisk
is it like the
words on bills of ships lading
ownership papers
broken peace treaties
declarations of war
race card is a door stopper
wedged in a locked door
it is a lid on the container
it’s a slap in the face
a guttural “shut up”
in need of dissecting
being taken apart to
examine its privileged pieces
so one can marvel at how
they help to create
the shadow of innocence
in a room full of
cannibals with flesh in
their teeth blood that
won’t fade on hands
that cover mouths in
consternation that someone
would proffer a conversation
about race
so in shades of self-preservation
they play the trump
to end the game
with the utterance
“don’t play the race card”
outro
if we can’t talk
how else do we find
understanding if you
don’t desire understanding
what else do you imagine
might solve the problem
covered beneath
the race card
