Lessons On Proper Posture

Stand up straight,
My child,
Keep your eyes to the front.
Act as if the book is balanced on your head
Instead of it being knocked from your hands
By screaming crowds of adults.

You!
You there!
You and your negro kind
Sitting up front at the diner counter
Silently demanding your voices be heard!
Sashay back to the tracks’s other side
To the places I’ve deemed
You Coloreds rightfully deserve.

It had to be seen to be believed,
Crawling on all fours,
A criminal
Brought to heel
Before a dozen, in fear of their lives, peacekeepers
Watching,
Tasing,
Steadily wielding their righteous batons!
All their names now forgotten footnotes in history
To the King’s broadcast decree
To find composure within ourselves
And simply try to get along.

My children,
Towards injustice,
You ask,
How should you carry yourselves?

Stand!
Walk tall! I tell you!
As the Gods you are!
The Gods your oppressors falsely imagine within themselves!