When I was in high school, one
of ninety-nine in the Class of ’62,
the school was integrated,
but the colored boys and girls
still danced at one end of the gym
while their fathers drank at the one bar
that had end stools for them
and their mothers were “the help.”
All I wanted was to get out of town,
and I did. I thought I’d left it behind
for good or whatever those fools had in mind
for the Alabama Side of South Jersey.
Sixty years later, a classmate sends me
a local video of black and white kids
marching right down Main Street,
past the hotel, the deli and the diner
that were segregated back then,
to the high school I hated for so long.
They wave placards: “Black Lives Matter,”
“Existence is Resistance,”
and “Defund the Police.”
Most of them are so young.
I hope they stay in town.
About the author: I’m a patent attorney/poet who has a biotech PhD and a JD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. At my undergrad school, I took a creative writing class from A.R. Ammons and started writing poetry, just as Viet Nam was heating up. I co-founded Abraxas Press and WORT-FM in Madison. I have authored six collections of my poetry and received fellowships in poetry from the NEA, the McKnight Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Find his books on Amazon.