Read to the cadence of “Paint it, Black” by the Rolling Stones.
I see a brown wall
and I want it painted black
if you have brownish skin
I want to send you back
I see brown men walk by
dressed in their working clothes
I tell my ICE agents
It’s time to make them go
I see the Ukraine fry
in Russian drone attacks
the bombing raids and tanks
that turn their cities black
I see our democracy
begin to fade away
a thousand starving kids
in Palestine today
When I look inside myself
I see my heart is black
the orange spray-on tan
can’t cover up the fact
’till that day I fade away
you’re tied onto the track
I’ll make you suffer days
while turning this world black
I watch the climate change
from here to Timbuktu
I smile at the heat that’s
burning into you
If you look hard enough
into my soulless eyes
there’s only room enough
for all that I despise
I see a brown wall
and I want it painted black
just like my darkened heart
too hard to even frac
I see brown men walk by
dressed in their working clothes
I tell my ICE agents
It’s time to make them go
My feeble mind is tainted
tainted black
Black as night
Black as coal
I wanna see the hope
Blotted out from your eyes
I wanna see them painted, painted, painted
painted black, yeah
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my first book, My Paper, My Words: Rantings from a Progressive Boomer and Peeved Parent, from Amazon. And if you feel moved to write a review of the book on Amazon or elsewhere, I’d be honored.
My Paper, My Words is a collection of essays, stories, and poems that reflect the challenges of a middle-class husband and father trying to navigate a rapidly changing political, religious, and technological landscape of post-9/11 America.
bendingtheneedle 