Mamalicious!

What’s the big deal?
Just choose.
It’s not even worth mentioning
this contrived “dilemma”–
this expectation that you would
wrap yourself in a flag
that was not sewn with you in mind,
a flag flown over a country where this slip-knot–
really, seriously, it’s just a slip-knot–
was wrapped around the necks of
men, women, and children
who look like you–What dilemma?

Just choose.

Especially if you are a Future First Lady,
the choice should be simple.
Choose properly, and the frightened pink man
on the TV won’t encourage others to pursue you
with the slip-knot

Just choose.

And–just so you know how completely hysterical you are being-
that word–
no, not that word,
the other word,
the L-word–
it does not mean what you think it means.
It means a miscarriage of justice, guilty until proven innocent:
the complete opposite of everything we stand for here.
And if you were a student of history,
like the frightened pink man on the TV,
you would know these things.
But you’re not.

So just choose already:
For us or against us,
Red, white, and blue,
Or black and blue.
The choice is yours.

I wrote this today in response to a picture of a Jena 6 protester shouldering protest signs featuring two images–an American flag fashioned into a jacket, and a noose. (I could not find that exact picture on the Web.) We were asked to look at various pictures and write about the silence in them. This took place during a wonderful master class at the University of Pittsburgh taught by Elmaz Abinader, at the invitation of my dear friend, Faith Adiele.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Education, Friends, In the News, Politics, Race Matters, Wordsmithin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.