WHITE OUT 
by Angela Elizabeth Boyce  

Just for me!
Only $5.99!
It's guaranteed!
Now on sale!
Genuinely certified...
you can buy whiteness!
I mean a straighter nose
and tan panty hose
and thinner lips
and slimmer hips
and bone straight hair from Clairol Loving Care.
Though you may change the imagery
it's still an animal they see.
Keep on you'll be permanently artificial.
You'll be fixing that mess that don't belong on your head.
You'll be lightening whiteness.
Ooo girl you look so fly with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Yes chile, your smile is much improved
now that you've pruned your lips.
Keep asking the mirror whose the fairest.
Who else but us would dare us to be down.
Though shades of brown we may be
Black should be our mentality.
Or is that just a fad that's about to go bad?
Can they buy us?
On sale now!
Just try it!
You'll like it!
whiteout
When in public places faces change
but facts remain unscathed.
In the process of falling in love
a white man heard a black man say
Once you go black you don't ever go back
and was torn between denial and agreement
and disillusionment and acceptance and
too bad brothas don't always agree
a different tribe you see
I say sistas can you hear me?
'cause some brothas got mottoes like
only if you are white are you then all right-
girl you outa sight, baby you are DYN-O-MITE
I worry about trophy brides and bougie blacks
look inside
face the facts
violent emotions
random acts
counter attacks that lost the war
men who want a jungle whore
a fantasy to take them back to their roots
frankly his mind was on knocking the boots
and I felt womanism come to fore as he exited
one more door locked and I had to discard that key
I looked in the mirror and asked what do you see
and the third eye whispered me as you you are me
zuri heshima nia imani
Christian values in an African dialect
don't mean I except destructive forces
courses taken on war always come to fore
in the reactionary mind
revolution draws near
we are running out of time
no sambo smiles and cotton picking
no KFC greasy finger licking
the truth
I'm feeling sick and discouraged
the lurid task asked of me was to deny what I could see
and pretend it would go away
in the back of my mind it stayed and grew
who knew I too would
become
self destructive
and love did not walk through a closed door
shame a pain I kept in storage
it's more
it's me
always knew closed eyes can't see
I say
Black people can you feel me
I say
can you feel me?

             Swab the Deck               Cosmic Ejaculations of the Daily Mind in Transit