race, remarks and knowing better

sometimes my blackness appears dirty
especially after two days of interrupted
didn't catch water in time for
WASA's broken pipeline
and i thought that must be it
but your black looks the same
despite the names you call me

i heard somewhere
near a bottle of coconut oil
that your hate has nothing to do
with the color of my skin
but the way my hair kinks
the way it curls naturally

amazing how hate always
find a way out, doesn't it
how it straightens itself
inside ignorance
and how do you love
not me, but your own
without inciting fear,
yourself, after looking in the mirror

i wonder about your life
and the misfortunes
that stirred your hate
in this dust we return
or the ashes we spread
when we have been spent of life
perphaps a heart that was spared
of the fellow-man-love-thing
towards a brother
who could have been yours

in Kentucky, Alabama and many more
black men were lynched because of hate
in India untouchables were scorned
because of hate and class
by ideologies that still separates us today
and you'd think that we let history
teach us a thing or two

you'd think colonialisation
would have taught us
this hate was really about dividing us
preventing us from being one
to keep us in distrust of each other
you'd think we'd be smart enough
to realize this 'divided we fall' strategy
and this 'trust me no further
than you can see me' shit
would have invaded our noses
and poisoned our ancestors
that this stench of hate
and racism would have stopped there
wouldn't you
well me too.


copyright 2000
paula obe