The Obama Serenades XIII

The Tragic Mulatto

We do not
choose our sires,
not consciously
the way
we choose
our friends
and spouses;
still,
inextricably,
we are
implicated
in the romantic
flushes of
pleasures,
deeds and
misdeeds
of those who
willed us
this way…

planted
at crossroads
between two
mutually exclusive
worlds,
one that is
all-embracing
and full of
warmth and
understanding,
and another
that is brutally
calculating
hardnosed
and remorselessly
acquisitive…
a father
with the flimsy
presence of
daydreams
and a lingering
shadow
that would not
be readily
swept off
by the sun
at noon –
a mother
whose
ubiquity
makes an
absentee father's
yearning
all the more
wistful…

child of
two worlds
and thus
a denizen
of none;
child of
two worlds
whose actuality
of one's
fullness of being
implies
a meaningful
convergence
of both
and thus
the creation
of a new
world of
even
loyalties…
no tragic
mulatto
when you
stop to
calmly
and
wisely
ponder
your two
organic
selves…

rather,
a tragically
impoverished
univisual
world
morally
blighted
beyond
repair…

7/18/09

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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