Race

It's the sheer scale of the problem that daunts,

and the skew of things contoured by years

of seeing blacks as shadowed strangers.

Lack of contact clouds judgement, fears

fly without relief from here to the horizon

at each report of black on white crime

with dirt retold on 24 hour news again

and again magnifying fear each time

as if we were waiting to be reoffended.

Are we? Offended is the right word 

but are we? Women are blamed for rape

and violence against them. Absurd.

Only men, allied with women, can stop rape and violence

against women. Only whites, allied with blacks, 

can stop racism. So, increase contact, read, listen,

speak up, speak out, have each other's backs.

Posted for my biracial grandchildren and for Grapeling over at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads who gave us a word list inspired by his plane travel but which I took in another direction in the wake of Ferguson, MO and too many similar incidents. In spite of the scale of the problem, we must believe we can effect change and then do it. If not now, when? If not me, who?

Though I am Old With Wandering...

I've traveled in my life,

found fresh vistas for hungry eyes,

moved forward toward the novel and

exchanged the customary close to my heart

to defy convention and shake loose moorings

that constrain even while they comfort. 

Something entirely new can then burst forth,

a friendship forged across boundaries of age and culture.

This place of connection against all odds

is the magic I've found and the highest degree of accuracy. 

We are one, this bench mark mapped,

the landmark of depth, formlines of home

set in our true coordinates.

This is written in response to two prompts at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads: the first from Helen to write of the travels in our life and the magic of what we've found and use map terms (used- degree of accuracy, bench mark, depth, landmark, coordinates, formlines) and the second prompt from Grapeling to use words from the July word list (used- fresh, burst, defy, forward, customary). Mario, in the photo with me, is 84 and from Montalcino, Italy.