long live giles li

04-02-09

Beautiful Ones / Project Poem-A-Day: Day 2

Beautiful Ones

In the 8th grade, the kids staged a protest of the Gulf War
by walking out of class all at once. Students
from three different schools participated,
marched around town, their shoulders slumped
under the weight of slogans.

And only seven of us dirty colored kids stayed behind in class.
We heard our pretty young teachers cooing
over the spirit of activism in their pristine march out the doors;
how proud they were that these kids -
their kids – were gonna make a difference.
They stood at the side exit of the building and
wished them luck, practically blowing kisses the whole time.

While in the math classroom, we seven glanced back and forth
at each other, comparing whose hair and eyes were blacker.
None of us were invited to the party; same old story. If
we had been invited, who would have gone?

We stood out. They were a GAP billboard in Nikes,
but we stood out. When they spread rumors, we
never heard them. There was no reason to tell us nothing;
our stories and histories were war. What
could you tell us about stopping one?

The next day, school was back to normal.
None of my classmates made the evening news, and
the war wasn’t over. I made plans to skip the next school dance
where the beautiful ones would relive their glory.