We Are Not Our Skin

On Racism

I know I’m white

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a problem

With what’s going on.

I don’t want to have to wear

The choices of other people on my skin

But if you have to, too then I guess it’s only fair

And I want you to know

That I also think “white priviledge” shouldn’t exist

And no that doesn’t make me a hypocrite

Because you,

You the minority,

You the downtrodden,

You the “cops brought me in ‘cause the color of my skin”

You of all people should know

That first, we are human

Second, we are teeth and eyes

We are our minds,

We are our knucklebones,

We are standing on the rooftops

Looking at the stars

And knowing that they are inside us,

And knowing that we aren’t supposed to be soldiers.

This wasn’t supposed to be our war.

This was supposed to be over a long, long time ago.

But I guess the past becomes the present

When nostalgia feels like hope,

When the “good old days” forget the bad nights,

Forever frozen in the moments before they

 turned off the lights,

the moment between when the

bullet went through Abe’s head

and his hat hit the ground.

We are suspended on a theatre balcony

Waiting for the intermission

Of a play written100s of years ago.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that sometimes instead of a person

They see an anger management tactic.

I’m sorry they get shiny new badges

And guns every week

And still hand you rakes and sewing needles

To defend yourself with.

I don’t know how to handle a knife.

I don’t know how to make them listen,

Everytime I try to start a conversation

They give me a kiss and an education

And so I try to drop it to get their attention

And they say “you’re too good a kid to get a detention”

And now we’re stuck again in the frozen moments

And so we keep training and training

And I’m not saying I have a solution.

That is not how this poem ends.

I’m not going to stand up here and pretend

That I can fix any of this.

I just wanted to say

That for the ones that have teeth,

Please remember to look into their eyes.

I promise you,

First we are human.