Casseroles for Comfort

 A cheesy hash brown casserole

 Is the comfort offering

from one  black-clad mourner

joining in weeping

and gnashing

of teeth

as we memorialize the life and

grieve the demise

of

U.S. America.

Brilliant blues, bold reds

and battle hymns

hid a

diseased soul.

His birth,

long celebrated

In song and story

due to his conception in liberty,

and his verbal dedication

to certain propositions, 

was accompanied by a death shadow,

A cancer embraced.

From the

auction blocks 

and slave ships,

a chorus of

lamentation

rode the wind

and waves,

searching for relief,

for healing.

We did not hear.

We lauded victory

on land and sea

for the one affectionately

known as uncle.

Plantations and

trails of tears and

camps of internment and

forced railroad labor and

ropes and

fiery crosses and

babies torn from parents arms and

destroyed Islands of brown people

all sounded a different cry,

screaming their pain,

and his eventual doom.

We did not hear

over the din of

baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.

But we did enjoy the cheesy hash brown casserole.