Legacy

My brother says, it’s probably easier for people who are the same race to date each other, and baby, I was this close to telling him how right he was, and this close to telling him to shut his face.

It’s been worrying me though, you and me.  I been dreaming about the Klan, lately.  I grew up knowing to wrap crosses in carpet, to douse that in gasoline so it burns brighter, longer.  How will I love you knowing that?  I once found a loose noose of nylon rope in my Sunday school classroom; a study in knot tying, only big enough to hang a doll.  How will I hold you, remembering that?

I dream about them coming for you.  I dream about them coming for you because of me.  I don’t dare take you to my parent’s home, only miles to the Grand Wizard’s.  I think I am the danger sleeping in your bed, charring cheese omelets at the stove, bouncing through the door with a bag of pilfered persimmons in the afternoon.

I wake up in the morning so glad you’re alive.  When you’re snoring away with a ring of dried snot around one nostril, I love you babe.  Wake up and tell me what you’re dreaming of, wake up and tell me you’re fine.