Walk on the Wilde Side

A friend
long removed from my sight
Sent an e-mail
to me
Last night
He got my address
I guess
From a mutual friend
And then
began to send
Messages
And quips
And jokes
Quips and jokes
Blips that spoke
Of hate
Hate for Hispanics
Hate for Asians
Double that for Blacks
Exemptions for Caucasians

My former friend
It became plain to see
When not guzzling beer
Was now sipping Tea
Twenty odd years had passed
Since we had last clasped
Hands together in friendship
Looking at an old photograph
I had retained
brought a brief smile
Then came the pain
For the smiling young man
With the long hair and suntan
Had changed
Were my eyes playing tricks on me?
Those lines near the mouth
The cruel eyes…can’t you see?

And with each correspondence I received
As the photo deteriorated
I tried to conceive
Was this happening across America?
Modern day Confederate Revelry
A reincarnation of Johnny Rebelry?

Congealing and
Repealing
decades of healing?
Yes, Virginia
Johnny’s come lately… morphing
Into… Johnny get your gun
Lincoln’s legacy soiled…defiled
A new war soon begun?
A Kodachrome pejorative
Jim Crow inspired Snapshots
developed
in dark souls
Creating a double negative
Exposures with a heavy toll

Have millions blundered
Now I wondered
And been adroitly led astray
Then Cloaked in flannel
Soaked in sanctimony
And shaded Dorian…Gray
Duped and looped by pundit
With solicitations from the hack
Incited and goaded…locked and loaded
Because the President is Black?

Are hate and mistrust
Our true Manifest Destiny
Nurtured in the land of the Veil
Where on hot summer nights
Under God’s twinkling lights
If you listen just right
You can still hear them moan
You can still hear them wail
Have some forgotten the horrors of slavery
And created a nouveau mystery?
Abandoned our principles and forsaken bravery
Denying our heritage…our American history?

And as the photo degenerated
Before my incredulous eyes
Corrupted by malice
Decaying from lies
I said a final good bye
I bid a last… so long
To another victim of Man’s folly
To my once now ex- friend ....

“Way down yonder in the land of cotton
It appears some folks clearly have forgotten….
Look away, look away, look away… from Dixieland”