your fragile tears and trembling voice
let me know how deeply you are hurt
because you feel silenced,
your values drowned
in the jubilance of those sinners
you claim to love
as you hate their sin,
because you did not win
this time
i can tell it hurts that others have placed
the “bigot” label
on you
i know the burden of bearing a label
that is not my name
still searching for your scars
where your ancestors were whipped into silence
for daring to desire freedom,
for voicing defiance,
i see no scars,
no strength in tears
weeped from eyes that did not watch your children
snatched away
never to be seen again
shed tears for words unspoken
not your fragile pain
shed tears for bloodlines broken
not your loss of gain
i hear the fear in your shimmering eyes
as you fail to realize
minority is not the same as
marginalized
I do not sympathize
This is hands down my favorite i have read of yours. This is so beautifully written and powerful.
“shed tears for words unspoken
not your fragile pain
she’d tears for bloodlines broken
not your loss of gain”
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Wow! The lines “minority is not the same as marginalized” — incredibly powerful!
Your words seemed cruel as you made it clear you were definitively unsympathetic toward the subject white woman. I found it interesting.
This is fantastic. Very powerful piece that I wish more got and understood and carried with them.
“i can tell it hurts that others have placed
the “bigot” label
on you
i know the burden of bearing a label
that is not my name”
Powerful poem!!
White fragility seek begs us to keep silent, I love your act of resistance in speaking out
*Seeks and begs
I love the line “minority is not the same as/marginalized”
There are many of the lines are so powerful, true and searing.
still searching for your scars/where your ancestors were whipped into silence/for daring to desire freedom,/for voicing defiance, was so heartbreaking so well phrased.
The way purpose and meaning meet here are so important.
I was a little unsure of “eyes that did not watch your children/snatched away/never to be seen again.” just because It’s possible that that has happened to her, based on the content of the poem, every other thing (the scars etc) were clearly true. But I know a lot of women who’ve had children taken away from them for a wide range of reason/ways, that are all sorts of colors.
I think there are lots of good powerful things you could say there, that are not that, and I still love the poem with that line there.
Sorry this is Caitlin writing this – not Jacob or anyone else affiliated with the poetry marathon, this is my opinion alone, I just forgot to log out!
I appreciate your response, Caitlin, especially the specifics. Salient point near the end the end. Something I had not considered.
Wow! This is the knee deep broken down to the most intricate detail of anguish not addressed or valued. This poem is a love song that you have written with honor deserved but still not served. I thank you, for the beauty of each line and verse is “poetic justice!”
I applaud your taking this on, and I like the topic. Still, this is a humble opinion. Maybe you’ll accept it, and it’s perfectly fine if you choose to not do so.
* * * Don’t let your readers get away with putting the “other” as the subject, not themselves as well.
Could you add some questions that would make the woman (the reader) have to answer reflectively?
“Do you cry when there’s no witness in a parade?”
“Do you protest when you are alone?”
“When did you feel ________ ?”
* * *
It becomes easy to set aside the white woman and not look at ourselves. Being Latina and white (and at various times looking as one or the other to the outside world), I am cast in both at various times. There have been times I’ve taken the same proactive work in both “social selves.” Likewise, I painfully recognize times that I’ve benefitted blindly from privilege and the other times I became overly defensive and reactive when facing stereotypes. Again, don’t let readers off the hook by making them focus on someone else but not themselves.
You’ve given me much food for thought. Thank you for this valuable input. I don’t know if I’ll have time to work on it for the anthology but I will definitely do so going into the future.