DFA Writes

She wears

abercrombie sweaters

old navy and gap jeans

brown loafers cover her feet

wooden beads around her neck

hair wrapped up in a bun

never been to a “ghetto”

no idea what a “gangsta” is

never heard gunshots

unless her grandpa was watching an old western

she never used the word nigga

never called herself black

she never struggled through real poverty

and never had to fight in school to make a name for herself

never been jumped on the way home

never rode the school bus with the “regulars”

she always took carpools with Sara and Amy to her school zone

She was unaware of Angela Davis

preferred George Bush to George Washington Carver

She was ignorant to her background

And felt she did not belong to a culture that

Sagged their pants below the waist

wore weaves every color under the sun

raced down the street blasting hip hop tunes and dodging cops

she hung her head in embarrassment

when she saw dreads and metallic grills

she was a shell

chocolate skin and green eyes

and what the other black girls considered “good hair”

She was a black girl

But she was lost….