1.
You like blue?
Well, an unhealthy
Adherence to blue
Means you’re the devil’s
Handmaiden.
You’re the bedwetter,
The bully, the thief.
You like salmon?
Trick question—
I like chicken. Fish
Eaters are scum.
In fact, they have no morals.
No reason to live.
2.
As you toss
Beer bottles into
The recycling bin
Suddenly the inside
Of the garage glows pink
And shines all
Aflutter
With evening light.
A headline on top
On the newspapers
Deep in the bin
Stops you:
Neo-Nazi Robocalls Reported
In Sandpoint.
How are we even talking
About this? Not my fault,
Not yours,
Right?
And it’s easy to look away—
Just fringe white supremacist
Nazi nobodies
Who nobody knows.
But if grievance is the coin
We spend so merrily—
Treasuring our differences
While ignoring
All that together ties us—
Then what are we buying?
At what cost?
Sweet grievance.
You have your reasons.
I have mine.
Favorite
Reasons cached
Deep in our pockets
And fondled until
They’re raw
And ready to explode.
3.
A black friend—
Sociology professor, PhD
Storyteller, catch-and-release
Fly fisherman—
Says when white people
See a policeman
They know he’s there to help.
When a black person sees
A policeman she knows
She may possibly get hurt
Or die.
Then George Floyd
Is murdered on video
Reminding us
White people we’re racist,
Even though we don’t the ways how.
So decked out
In our high
And mighty compost-like
Stink—
Everybody owes us
Our blessings, our 401Ks
And our guns, everybody—
We require a sacrifice
Like George
To get off our couches
And open the blinds.
Ignore means
To refuse to pay attention to.
Big George’s
Plea—
I can’t breathe—
An invocation
To abandon
The privilege
Of remaining ignorant—
Who me?
Racist?
Wait a minute
The police?—
Not a gift
Easy to put away
Or trade
For an action flick
At Gold’s Pawn Shop,
But an invocation—
I can’t breathe.
Written and submitted by John Whalen