Spend it :: A Poem

1. in an world that has
many worlds,
a disintegrated world,
my skin is like a shield
those in power look at me
and don’t see a dangerous person
or a criminal
and
though they don’t know me,
they keep their guns in
their holsters
their voices friendly.

2. someone I love and I were both
arrested as teenagers
I was carefully shepherded back
to the
right path
while he and his Black skin
confirmed their suspicions
and he was tossed
down a
different
pipeline

this phenomenon is called white privilege
a strange term to describe
a seemingly more palatable
form of hatred

3. the fires of justice are burning
and won’t stop
until
every place is level
every human
known as worthy
of gentleness
respect
and restoration
but until then
I think about this privileged skin
I am in

I didn’t ask for it
I hate the ugliness of this system
no poetry in it at all
but maybe privilege is like money
if i hold onto it
hoard it
it will corrupt me
it will own me
but
if I spend it
if I open my hands and throw it
in great bucketfuls
if I use it
to be beautiful rabble
to cause holy trouble
to dive into the hope of the scrum

to make a sign
a poem
a life that says
Black Lives Matter
and because they do
we all do
we can’t have some of us
but not all of us
that is how it works
in God’s fierce
creation

4. —isn’t it the most electrifying thing
when people use
whatever power is in their possession
to change the game
to open the door
to step in the way?
Frodo at Mount Doom
Harriet Tubman going back once more
to set more people free
William Wallace
John Brown
Jesus

I am not fooling myself
perhaps there is no great need for me
in this world
but I don’t want to be
corrupted
I have my life
my love
and my skin

and until the color of my skin
no longer matters
I will endeavor to
spend it.

***

You can join in at Patreon for my daily poetry in your inbox. Your support makes it possible for me to keep writing!