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This blog ran for more than two years with no graphics--and it received about 50 page views. I was advised to add graphics; after seeing the huge public that followed blogs dedicated to homoerotic images, I decided to use that kind. The result was a dramatically increased number of monthly page views, and the number has remained fairly steady. Most of the images were found on the internet; although they are assumed to be in the public domain, they are identified as far as possible. They are exhibited under the Fair Use protections of United States copyright law: their function is simply to attract readers to the poems--I receive no economic benefit from them or from the blog. Nevertheless, they will be removed if they are copyrighted and the owner so desires. 1260 x 290

POEMAS EN ESPAÑOL -- 2009: January 8, April 12, August 3 . . . . 2010: January 13 . . . . 2013: June 30, November 28, December 8 . . . . 2014: September 25, November 30 . . . . 2015: July 9, October 22 . . . . 2016: February 12, August 1, December 28 . . . . 2017: March 2, September 5 . . . . 2018: May 10, July 15, November 3 . . . . 2019: August 4, December 5 . . . . 2020: December 1 . . . . 2021: October 12, December 3 . . . . 2022: April 15, June 21 . . . . 2023: January 3, April 2, May 9, June 6.

Thursday, July 15, 2021

BLACK ON WHITE

 

                “What I Am”

 

These black letters on a white page,

don’t they… how do they feel.

How does this white page feel,

having black letters on it?

Does it cringe and shrink?

How do they feel about black print,

black ink on their white pages….  Too bad.

White sidewalls on black rubber tires,

used to be a status symbol.

Now tires are all black,

black rubber on black asphalt.

Proud black rubber tires rolling along.

To black music on the radio.

To black notes on the white score.

What would their pianos be

without the black keys.

How do they feel, putting their

white fingers on the black keys.

What about black fingers

Playing around on white keys….

Clarinets are black.  How do they feel

putting their white lips on a black clarinet.   

white lips and tongue on a black….

maybe the reeds are white,

how do they feel, seeing black lips

on white reeds.  Clarinets or saxophones.

They put their white lips and tongues

on dark rich fudge, fudge brownies,

and dark rich chocolate cake, they call it

devil’s food.  If it’s white they call it

angel’s food but if it’s dark they call it devil’s food.

Fudge ripple, there’s never enough,

when they mix it, there’s never enough                              

rich dark chocolate fudge in the fudge ripple.

And the name of it’s Fudge, not Vanilla with.

When you get a double dip, was it Malcolm

or Ali who said always make ’em

put the chocolate on top of the vanilla.

Don’t you know they cringe at that.

And what about a child born of one black

parent and one white parent.  How do they

always classify that.  They always call it black,

not white.  So I guess that means

black is stronger than white,

superior to white, right?  Who said that…

Oh yeah, Dick.  Dick said that.

The one who said that was Dick.

Me, I’m a proud black man, proud.  Proud.

Ain’t nothin’ wrong with me.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.pexels. com/photo/grayscale-photo-of-man-looking-up-3031391/  

 

 

Author's note:  The poem attempts to reflect some of the painful psychological damage inflicted by racism.  It is based on public statements and interviews made by a number of black public figures from the 1960s through the 1980s.  The epigraph quotes the title of a poem by a contemporary black male poet.


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