The smell of tainted pork in the air. Cloven hoof steps of nine-millimeter pistol, the bad
apple, soon justified as an isolated incident. Police jargon for legally lynched ghost.
Splayed hinge of black child. The chalk-outlined metaphor of thug or demon.
Smoldering rage soon spontaneous riot, broken glass & tear gas. Evidence of ghosts.
An historical singularity tiny enough to smolder in-just-us. Gone ghetto
on yo' ass. An explosion of ghosts.
Police-state thin blue line. A thorn-studded las' nerve tried fenced in
barbed wire & painted to look like an outside agitator. Incog-Negro ghost.
Hate is too strong an emotion to waste on someone you don't trust,
is the keloid topography that marks us with their intolerance & fear. A ghost
of a chance, living while black. It hain't, but most often, is.
+ + +
Note: Hain't is slang for a male ghost (i.e. A black male ghost). I grew up hearing this word in Teviston, CA, which was a poor black migrant workers area south of Pixley, CA. The area was populated by a majority of black migrant workers, and their descendants, who had fled the Dust Bowl areas of the Depression. They were stereotypically referred to as Black Oakies.