SIXTH WEEK THURSDAY: MOHAWK CUT PRANCING PAST THE MOUSSED AND SPRAYED

During the current legal challenges and heated debates over several states new, rigid anti-immigration laws (pending), I have been reminded over and over that we all (especially us Southern “church ladies” would not know what to think about other people all around them, all the time, everyday, in every setting, without including thoughts that fit every definition of PROFILING!   This has disturbed my inner balance more than I would like with pangs of sadness and disappointment in my “ladies”.    WHY DO WE NE–EE–EEEE–EEED TO CLASSIFY OTHERS IN OUR OWN MINDS?  Why is that such a seeming requisite?  Well, I think it is a whole lot of insecurity, a whole lot of secret unnecessary fear, a tad(?) of smugness, and a tad of needing to “pray aloud on the street corners”.  So, I felt much better after lunching at my favorite church lady’s establishment(she projects not one whit of a profiling attitude!) and observing the following:

MOHAWK CUT AMONGST THE HAIR-SPRAYED

The Mohawk-cut struts with his cute, well-toned

          young self amonst the

Hair-sprayed lunchers

          clean in his

N.W.A.–STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON

         rip-sleeved tee,

Careful to swivel

         away from each and every

Lifted sweet-tea and Diet Pepsi’

          leaning on the counter so lithely

To pick up his mama’s order

         while many $60.00 tinted heads

Oh so pucker-lipped gaze most carefully

         down on their barely touched salads.

His mama had ordered the cornbread

          and collard greens and a whole

Chocolate Sin layer cake, the same as I

         had taken for my mother-in-law’s birthday!

Guess which parts of the above scene perked me up the most!

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FIFTH WEEK THURSDAY: SPEAKING OUT OF YOUR SLOT

 

I.

People think they are friendly

When they speak to themselves

In the mannequin images

Of those they think they know well–

 

In the postures of those

They think like them

In the waiting places of those who do not

Know themselves

 

II.

Alone beside myself when

The first person who

Spoke to me out of

Twenty had just been

Pronounced a very good man

With a nod and a wave of judication

And just been corrected

By his wife allowing me in my corner

 

Back to prose thoughts of the day: many unanswered questions:

1)  What if you never received any social cues except the backs of people?

2)  What if my positive social cues are all online?

3)  How are violent domestic extremists not lonely?

4)  How can we learn to fall into the “right place” when we fall out of ourselves from being touched?

5)  Do the vibes from our hearts defeat gravity and radiate to other spheres when our fleshly heart ceases beating, where they will perhaps spark a light back to a dark hearth down the street, around the corner, over the hill?

6)  Regarding our essence: does the need to maintain a strong backbone defeat the development of a flexible wishbone (see: Clemtine Paddleford)?

7)  Isn’t it good enough to nurture a single rose for my garden and allow the rose’s sweetness and beauty to draw in that one friend to make the rest of my world, Leo Buscaglia?

8)  Will those preparing for the Apocalyse, carefully keeping blank faces, conserve their energy for refueling their lamps into the coming darkness?

9)  Will these skimping lamplighters succeed in nudging the timeline of their own conclusions backwards into their yesteryears?

10) Will these narrow lights of the straight-faced keep their lights shining on the details of their retreat into the storing places of their endeavors?

11) Will the door open at their approach to reconsiderations, or will it swing into the bodies of their deeds abraded by rushing past their brothers?

12) Do we dwell in shyness to be warm, and as we grow cold in loneliness, grow angry and warm ourselves with wrath?

13) Do we wave at just one other as we set about to hide so that one will knock for admittance to our self-absorption?

 

Profiling others bends our noses, squeezes our eyes, twists our mouths, so that we are unrecognizable at the gates and are left to wait by the firepit.

 

NOTE:  All of the above verses and questions are being prompted by:

1)  Occupy Wall Street

2) U.S. vs. three states regarding pending immigration laws

3) My own challenges in balancing the need to “wait” for “proper” social cues before speaking out and the need to steadfastly, firmly, gently stand on the side of justice.