you are five

a little black girl wants to be friends

and you tell your mother about it

 

she tells you no

and you wonder why she says it that way,

with her face twisted

like she had just taken a drink of spoiled milk

 

don’t be friends with her

she says

 

so you don’t

 

you are fourteen

and you are at school

 

There is a black girl in tears

and you think about when you were five

and your mother’s face when she said

 

don’t be friends with her

 

but you never got a reason as to why

 

so you ignore your mother

and you befriend this black girl

 

who has been tossed to the streets

and orphaned

because her parents were arrested

 

they say it was drugs

 

and your white heart pulls back a little bit,

 

your hands are too clean to deal with

these things

 

but she is not defined by her race

She is not her parents

 

she is the girl you could not befriend

back when you were five

 

when your mother said

 

do not be friends with her

 

so you are fourteen

and you are white

and you bring this black girl

home to your white mother

and her face twists again

 

but this time without the taste

of spoiled milk

 

this time

she tells you

 

be this black girl’s friend

for she needs your light

against her dark