Guest Shot - Tree Rings

by Zoie Thomas resident poet at Mighty Writers. 

(Mighty Writers is a flourishing program for young writers in Philadelphia that now has four locations.)

Zoie expresses her feelings about the recent rash of nooses showing up in our city in the following poem:

Is it okay to say that I feel nothing about the nooses hanging around the city?

I could say, "These acts of hatred scare me and I can't imagine who would do this."

But I would be lying

Not about the fear, Not about the fear,

No, the fear is the chill that goes through the body of a recovering addict

The body shaking, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, knowing that I can't control it, that's what my fear feels like.

But to say I am surprised is to say that every president up until the 44th was not white

That the KKK doesn't hold meetings in public places

That Neo-Nazis are not common in America and that we didn't just elect a man who objectifies the very people he is sworn to protect.

That a white acquaintance of mine didn't try to defend his use of the word nigger and that people around me don't look at me as if I am crazy when I defend myself.

It would be to deny that last year I went to Maryland and they were selling Confederate flag t-shirts like memorabilia of a greater time, America's Greatest Hits

Souvenirs of a better time, a time that could come again, a time that we deserved, it was time to make America Great Again.

And now here we are a year later, displaying what it means to make America great again.

Nooses hang, and freedom rings everywhere we look

Reminding all of us that we live in the land of the free and the home built by slaves. 

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, 
but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

-- James Baldwin

http://www.mightywriters.org