Fear of the Other

"Sometimes it seems like to tell the truth

today is to run the risk of being killed.

But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches

forward in the fight for freedom."

--Fannie Lou Hamer

fear of the other

in America is not new,

it is infused

in and through the body of the

nation.

ICE raids in Cali strawberry fields

yet most Americans

rarely think about the people

that pick

their fruits and vegetables.

would-be King 47 never

shops for groceries.

smug Afrikaner rich man Elon Musk financed

MAGA ignorant arrogance

into that same old American

greatness:

my grandparents fled

a rabid Jim Crow South Carolina.

my father fought

in a segregated World War II army.

my uncle survived Korea

only to come home to Promised Land and no promise.

who will the Trumpians

scape goat next

when they see

expensive

or empty store shelves?

now is the time for the "silent

majority" Americans

to learn what those of us

consigned to the margins have always known:

America is as America does.