Fueled by Ferguson

let’s talk about

progress: how much we haven’t made.

my grandmother describes today’s nightmares

from the 60s,

the 70s, 80s, 90s.  

“we didn’t know better back then, it was a different time. but we know better now.”

let’s talk about the bullshit.

we’ve always known better.  

someone has to have always known better.

it is so blatantly not a different time.

let’s talk about

white guilt: a heavy mixture

of embarrassment. denial. panic. disbelief. disappointment.

weighing on the heart

like chains on a wrist, maybe.

like an invisible noose around your neck.

maybe. i don’t know.

i couldn’t know.  

let’s talk about

how strange it is to crave compassion—

a basic piece of human nature.

how strange to hope for a lack of ignorance—

a basic human responsibility.

how strange, to wish for a time

in which children are no longer taught to hate.

how strange to realize that in this country,

equality cannot and will not ever be attained.

unless we start over.

wholly and completely, from the top.

everything’s got to be different.

let’s talk about that.  I want us to start over.