Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Talk


I wanna talk about race
I wanna talk about race & the way
         that I felt when my 1st cousins
         on my father’s side of the family
         use to blame me for growing up
         in the suburbs & telling me
         I sounded too white.

The way my cousins on my mother’s side of the family
         used to make fun of my voice
         because it was so high.
                  They said I sounded like Michael Jackson.

I wanna talk about race
I wanna talk about being black & being gay
         & the way that some black folks
                  Some out of work black folks
         Speak in ½ truths about each other
         dripped in ¼ truths about the bible
         & ¼ truths from a church
                  that doesn’t want anything to do with them.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that I don’t know
         much about gospel singers.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way I had to learn
         the 4 riffs I know
         & would modulate them into any key.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that I could modulate them into any other key
         because I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Music
                  when some others can’t even read it
         & my minor was in piano.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that sometimes
         I feel so alone.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that I can’t seem to get
         a black person to enter my home
         let alone invite me to brunch.


I wanna talk about race
         & the way I hate
         that I live with a cat.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that Miss Dihann Carrol
         once told Aaron Spelling
         “What your show needs is a Black Bitch.
         I’d like to be that Black Bitch.”
         & thus Dominique Deveraux was born.

I wanna talk about race
         & the way that I like being black with a “C-K”
         & not a “Q-U-E”
                  Cuz those are fools who take it to church
while they sing love songs
                  to women they don’t wanna sleep with.

I wanna talk about race
         & how the only representation I see of myself
         on the screen
         on the stage
         tells me I have to be
         the clown, the drag queen, or the down-low thug

& I don’t like lace fronts
         or Timberlands
         And I just don’t do “Kinky Boots”
         So, what am I supposed to wear?

I wanna talk about race
         & how I swear I’m trying
         just as hard as I’m being tried.

If you promise you’ll meet me at the table
         I promise I’ll bring the champagne.
         Is the idea that we could all get along just too much to handle?

I wanna have a conversation about race

I wanna talk about race.  I wanna talk about race.