The Tell

By Jeffrey Dreiblatt

 

Each time the word white goes unmentioned,

relief leaves a tic on our cheeks.

Despite well-patterned patter, we stare

for eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

 

Conversation starts —

I have to take care of our people, he says.

This is a poem about what I did to George Floyd.

For white people.

 

For white people,

this is a poem about what we did to George Floyd.

We have to take care of our people, he says.

 

Conversation starts

for eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

Despite well-patterned patter, we stare.

Relief leaves a tic on our cheeks.

Each time, the word white goes unmentioned.

Jeffrey Dreiblatt is a poet, visual artist and volunteer fire fighter. His work has appeared in The Dillydoun Review and Bindweed. He lives in Copake and Brooklyn, New York.

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