Such an easy one to field
One doesn’t have to be here long
The answer’s not concealed
The volumes that exist, abound
Stark testimonies, too
But when one seeks so desperately
To pander to the bigotry
That gifts to some, supremacy
What else is one to do?
Did you see the disconnect
The panic on that face?
The heart was racing frantically
While reason lost its place
The lie that one has told oneself
In order to fit in
Still won’t secure a place with those
Who know the origin
Did you hear the stumbling
And the fumbling meant to steer
The lie back to its prominence
And make truth disappear?
One can’t admit aloud what one knows
But proceeds to fight.
To publicly acknowledge what
One knows is wrong or right
Would be the end of favor
Where one desperately hopes to be
And yet, the lie one peddles
Threatens one’s own liberty
Did you ever see denial so personified?
One couldn’t be more pitiful
If one sincerely tried
Who is it that one aims to please
With one’s outrageous words?
Even those who, too, deceive
Know one’s speech is absurd
It’s funny how experience
So colors what one sees
Romanticizes violence
And rewrites History
Perhaps it’s just too painful
To merely speak the truth
A truth that lives—
And should greatly impact one’s point of view
Just what would be the consequence
If one would simply say
What everyone knows to be so
Why always the delay;
The stubborn, staunch refusal to
Let go of guilt and shame
Acknowledge each atrocity
And call them out by name?
Did you see the struggle?
It’s a shame to fight oneself
The heart will never let the face
Dictate what’s truly felt
So one must lie.
I don’t know why one makes oneself a fool
Only to do “their” dirty work
And be a useful tool
Until one’s usefulness runs out
And one must face oneself
And search for all the truths
One hastily put on a shelf
As if truth can be hidden
And is ever want of light
But, now it blinds; it’s glare, too much
Because one chose the night—
Cozied up with darkness
Could it be one hates oneself?
Has one exchanged even one’s name
For want of something else?
Did you see the misery?
One knows it won’t be long
Before the thing that one supports
Makes one sing a new song
A song full of apologies
For one’s own ignorance
A song explaining why one was so mired in nonsense
A song seeking forgiveness
And a wee chance to repair
The gross misinformation
And division everywhere
Did you hear the question?
How surely would you say
That racist ideologies
Have always been at play?
How you answer the question
Also serves to show
Whether you’ve ever cracked a book
Opened your eyes to take a look
It seems so many just forsook
The truth, and sold their souls
One thing is for sure
If one’s to lead you, one must know
Who you are, where you’ve been
And the right way to go
One misinformed— so confused
Willfully blind, or dense
One utterly dishonest, careless
Void of common sense
One who lies, and so derides
Your lived experience
No empathy, no sympathy,
Lacking intelligence
Will never know the answers
Why?
There’s no integrity
In one who pans your story;
Slanders your humanity
Now, I ask
How could such a one
Ever represent me?
VRWc2024
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