stains

with only a couple of days left in black history month, i wanted to post a poem that i published 4 years ago. i wrote it in honor of one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, langston hughes. i hope you enjoy it.


stains
for langston hughes


you sang america
when white linens were washed with
lye.

now colors tumble dry
rather than hang
on a line.

sheets rode the wind
like pointed ghosts of past. stains
pinned with pride for all
to see. today
she wears them privately;
shamefully.

try to wish them gone
when they will not wash
gone

sleepily she recalls the text-
book tragedies of which you
wrote; half
on your side, half
her own. decades gone,

her hands still smell of
lie.