and it happened last year
and we didn't say it last year
and you've got better things to do
because she shouldn't have
stolen education for a six-year-old
son, to better his life
she shouldn't have been homeless
if she had been smart
she would have been born
white so that good white people
wouldn't have saw the desire
to protect her son, to give him a
shot in this world as theft,
she shouldn't have been
born a woman, black and needy
certainly shouldn't have had
a boy who is inquisitive
and wants to succeed
she should have stayed in her
place, not been sneaky
not been crazy enough
clever enough to live in two
places, not counting her
car, one of them in the district
where she was arrested
for being a thief of knowledge,
of knowing that one district
was better than the next
of calling the educational
system into question
by deciding
and her deciding
she should have known
the price of wanting her
child to have what the other
children had, a chance
she should have known it
was theft because
what else
would you call
what a black mother
does to take care
of her child
and of course you need
to make an example of
her because if she gets
away with it, how many
other black mothers
will follow her like
she's some modern-day
Harriett Tubman, a
Moses of her people
seeking a Promised Land
that does not exist.
© Valerie Bridgeman
March 7, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment