A very good jeweler
(#2, from "Provocative Poems From A Sister")
And this you will feel:
nice, very nice, like an ice cream cone, vanilla
sprinkled with chocolate jimmies:
Something close to black and white because
this is what it is
black and white.
And this you will do:
smile, a welcoming smile, like a crackling fireplace:
warm, inviting and untouchable because
this is what you are,
warm, inviting and untouchable.
And this you will be:
Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Broadway -
something very upscale, metropolitan like
clicking Frye-boots prance past fallen rags lying
on the dirty sidewalk in the vapor of urine.
And this you will see:
nothing, nothing besides the polished shine of
your diamond roots.
And this you will say:
nothing, nothing about the sin –
the sin of being you.
And this you will know:
the rightness, the rightness of the beatings because,
it is black and white and
this is all that it is –
you will never be the right color,
never clear, but cut,
chiseled to a gem that refracts
a very good jeweler.
~ Copyright © 2008 by Susan Durant. From Provocative Poems From A Sister. Used by permission of the author.