I Wonder

I wonder

Will there ever be a time

when I can write in prose or rhyme

regarding racial prejudice?

How I feel? What was? What is?

Is the irony of being white

that I do not have the right

to speak about the idea of wrong

in any essay, poem or song?

And how can I, because I’m straight

dare to try, appropriate

explain my feelings of bi - of gay

“You shouldn’t try” - that’s what they say

I hope somehow I have the power

and the wit to show that our

collective future yet to be

is dependant both on you and me

For in my heart a truth resides

It drums a beat and wanting guides

my voice to pen what’s deep in me

hoping, too, that I will see

truly that, instead of other,

I will only see a brother

sister father mother son

only human, every one

Perhaps you’ll lend a helping hand

supporting me, so I can stand

on my own, above the throng

to clearly see my right from wrong

train my ears just like my eyes

to glean the truth from sifted lies

and my mouth to speak the same

so that I never offer shame

You will, of course, for you are wise

You’re not the type to criticize

or judge a person by their race

or by the color of their face

You will, I know, for you are brave

You‘re the kind who’ll work to save

me before I judge again

another’s ilk, a man with men

an elegy for B to Q

and other types I never knew

that some were born feeling wrong

that they were right though, all along

I’m glad that I can turn to you

to learn to be a human, true

of heart and spirit, fair to all

I know you’ll catch me when I fall

Perhaps the world will forget

that I am not quite there, not yet

Perhaps, you too, were once like me

before you lived so perfectly.