To George of NOLA
"When you wonder what your role is this in this country and what your future is in it and how precisely are you going to reconcile and how are you going to communicate to the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel white majority?" ---James Baldwin in 1963
When George Loyd died,
I was horrified, George of NOLA
When foreign students ask me to find them New York apartments devoid of black population
I want to tell them about you, George of NOLA
When my black friend's character is being judged to the extent of the shades of his blackness
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a black father refused to attend her daughter's wedding because
she was going to marry a white man
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a white woman in Central Park calls for 911 when a black man
politely asks her to leash her dog as the park rule indicates so
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a black landlord asks me if I could help her find white tenants
I think of you, George of NOLA
When I re-read "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
I think of you, George of NOLA
When the white woman clutches her wallet fearfully while riding with a black man in the elevator
I think of you, George of NOLA
When Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead while running in the neighborhood
I fear for you, George of NOLA
When I sit in a cafe with a black colleague in a small Southern town and the white owner can't stop peeking at us from the corner of his eyes
I think of you, George of NOLA
When I witnessed black teens robbed $200 from a neighbor and kept silent for fear of retaliation
It was you, Gorge of NOLA, encouraged me to report it to the police
In my heyday of idealism, my lover, a black intellectual showed contempt to his own people
I was confused and hurt, George of NOLA
When a white man with childhood trauma inflicted by his father chose to live in the ghetto of Saint Bernard for solace and for chaos
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a politician inflames his "black lives matter" speech to the heedless mob
It is an insult to your intelligence, George of NOLA
When I learn that Malcolm X educated himself in prison cell with only one dictionary and became an eloquent orator
I think of you, George of NOLA
When violent protesters burn and loot the city
"That is not the way to honor George Boyd."
I know you will say so, George of NOLA
When your younger brother died of diabetes at the tender age of 42 years old
Your blamed yourself for your failure of caring for him, George of NOLA
When you told me the damage done to your children because of the absence of a father
I feel your pain, George of NOLA
When I finished reading the book "The 50th Law" written by "50 Cent"(aka, Curtis Jackson)
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a black man walks out of Domino's Pizza, hungry and empty handed
because the white cashier refuses to hand him pizza unless he pays first
I think of you, George of NOLA
When a young black man was shot in the leg by the police while climbing into the window of his own apartment because he forgot his keys
My heart aches for you, George of NOLA
When Shaquille was wrongfully accused of theft by his employer of 20 years
I think of you, George of NOLA
As black teens die in gang fights daily at 9th Ward of New Orleans
I think of you, George of NOLA
When you reconciled with your ex but she cheated on you again
You forgive her and move on with your own life
When a Creole woman wants to pass for white and cuts her ties with her entire black family back in Bayou Ridge
I think of you, George of NOLA
When your barometer of a good person is to avoid being arrested and not to have trouble with the police
I scream inside: life is much much more; it is beyond your wildest imagination, George of NOLA
When OJ Simpson walks out of prison as a freeman,
I think of you, George of NOLA
When Barrack Obama takes oath of the office as American president
I think of you, George of NOLA
When you tell me stories of your grandmother
Your whole face lights up 2000 watts and yonder
I understand where your soft heart comes from
You can't not even crush a bug, George of NOLA
Your kindness, equanimity and strength, among soft living of others, are beyond my comprehension
The sunny and bright days of Big Apple remind me
Your big, white-toothed grin, my dear George of NOLA
The thought of you being crushed to death by white knees in uniform is
dark and unthinkable and
When a black father weeps in hysteria to his 16-year-old son that rioting and looting are signs of weakness, only prudence, strategy and self-reliance are the answers
My eyes well up, George of NOLA
I pray incessantly, for black father, for white father, for yellow father
and for George of everywhere