the u.s. surgeon general and the
congress on racial equality have ascertain'd--
after years of research
since the tuskeegee experiment--
that loving black is not contagious,
nor carcinogenic

loving black will not result in natural disaster
where FEMA will have to place priority
on ‘da hood when the acid rains
of hurricanes of indifference
strike us blind, and loving black
will not cause rednecks to
experience stinging aftertastes.

touching black will not produce
open sores that refuse to heal unlike
those inflicted on our ancestors
who were carriers, the storytellers of old,

and research shows that stroking black
does not generate terminal side effects
of dizziness,
nausea,
occasional vomiting,
lack of sleep,
headache,
dry mouth,
eating mayonnaise,
desiring to wear
bright colors
or hallucinations
of the inner-city thugs
taking over the
New York Stock Exchange.

but alas please beware
of the fact that
the Afrikaan infused
with ameriKKKlan thinking
is on a terminal course--

a course that will not hesitate to
display open sores oozing of racism

dripping freely in a corporate shell
that refuses to grow new skin left untreated,

sores that drip, resembling
crimson tear tracks
of forgotten tribes
and festering scars
in the bosoms that were
lacerated with hate
during celebrated lynchings of
business owners,
inventors,
brides-to-be,
and other predestined genius. . .

their bodies transformed
into rotting blossoms
whose families were forbidden
to plant in meadows of memory--
creating a lingering stench
that we detect even now, and
filling millennium air
with carcinogenic policies
that estrange us from ourselves . . .

NOW the fact of the matter IS
that if America is to be a nation
of purported oneness,
the more than a few of us
must let go of our fears,
and coat-check our superior ethnicity
at the door. . .

for loving black is not contagious,
but the essence of soul
is capable of permeating even
the coldest of the species.


© 2004 by cynth'ya lewis reed