"Standing Tall"

 

I walked behind you to the door

Your shirt flapped in the wind

You glanced backwards but let it fall

Behind the wood I was pinned

 

 

I strained and shoved the weight aside

Ahead you smirked at me

Asking why I’d expect you to hold the door

If I believed in equality

 

You stand tall as the breeze curls into your hair, teasing it out of place

I cannot help but wonder what the view would be like

If at your side remained a space.

 

My hand curves wearily over the mouse

Glassy eyes fixed on the screen

Overheard, water runs and runs

Trickling away as you preen

 

Job listings swarm invitingly

Whispering of less sleep

But bills beckon and your shower continues

And I have promises to keep

 

You stand tall as water comes pattering down, morphing into dimes down the drain

Droplets squeeze through the pipes and sit heavy on my shoulders

A numbing, insistent pain.

 

We pass a couple with tired eyes

Foreign words flitting between them

I watch in surprise as your face twists

An unspoken ad hominem

 

We spent the day in the company of those

Whose skin pigment differed from yours

What hate could have simmered within your heart

As you patronized their stores?

 

Just this morning you had breakfast at a Swedish cafe

Bought a jacket imported from Jordan

All the while degrading the existence of those

Whose services you demand

 

Alone in our bedroom, I lie back

And raise my hands before my face

Wondering what trick of fate gave me skin

That means different rights in the same place.

 

As we walk through town you are standing tall, gazing down at passerby

Twisting to stare behind you, never ahead or above

Even as clouds begin to darken the sky

 

If I still for a moment, they reemerge

Memories from when we were content

Our issues did not threaten the lives

Of people you are meant to protect

 

Sometimes a hint of the past flickers to life

A glimpse into your core

When you help an old woman across the street

Or donate old clothes to the poor

 

This brusque veneer is not your soul

You are more than your actions of late

I hope only that I and those like me

Can outlast this perversion of fate

 

Time was when we all stood tall as one, this time can come again

You must tear your eyes from the darkening sky

And retrace the paths where you’ve been

 

The flag on our house is still today, not a trace of wind stirs its folds

You duck underneath it on your way to the car

The beginning of a story to be told.