Poetry Month Day 8 - No, Sir
No, sir
I don't think your joke
About keeping dozens of
Undocumented Mexicans
Crammed into your basement
Is funny.
I don't like what it implies:
That this is their default living condition
That they would owe you something for
"Providing" such substandard living arrangements
That you would enjoy exploiting their situation
That you think, because I'm white like you
That I think like you.
I wish that I had not laughed along with you.
This conversation doesn't need smoothing
It needs ending.
No, sir
I don't sympathize with you
For having the police called to your residence
Because you told a Latino
Who had fixed your car
That the trailers in front of your house
Were jammed wall-to-wall with
His people.
I don't understand what you want from me:
To agree with you that you were wronged?
To support your belief that
Those Brown Boys aren't trustworthy?
To nod and intimate that it's OK
And that I get it, because I'm white?
You're right, you do need
To watch what you say.
And not just to people who look like Mexicans to you.
No, sir
I don't care how many Mexicans
You think are living
In the house across the street
I asked you a simple question
About your house.
It saddens me that you spring so readily
To assume the worst of The Other
To try to work against your neighbors
To place me in your camp
You have a giant American flag
Hanging right behind you.
Don't you understand that they came here,
So they could stand in front of that flag, too?
I don't think your joke
About keeping dozens of
Undocumented Mexicans
Crammed into your basement
Is funny.
I don't like what it implies:
That this is their default living condition
That they would owe you something for
"Providing" such substandard living arrangements
That you would enjoy exploiting their situation
That you think, because I'm white like you
That I think like you.
I wish that I had not laughed along with you.
This conversation doesn't need smoothing
It needs ending.
No, sir
I don't sympathize with you
For having the police called to your residence
Because you told a Latino
Who had fixed your car
That the trailers in front of your house
Were jammed wall-to-wall with
His people.
I don't understand what you want from me:
To agree with you that you were wronged?
To support your belief that
Those Brown Boys aren't trustworthy?
To nod and intimate that it's OK
And that I get it, because I'm white?
You're right, you do need
To watch what you say.
And not just to people who look like Mexicans to you.
No, sir
I don't care how many Mexicans
You think are living
In the house across the street
I asked you a simple question
About your house.
It saddens me that you spring so readily
To assume the worst of The Other
To try to work against your neighbors
To place me in your camp
You have a giant American flag
Hanging right behind you.
Don't you understand that they came here,
So they could stand in front of that flag, too?