3. Not Knowing Better
florene barco moved
to philadelphia &
on a visit home told
us she went
to school with
white kids
it was a lunar image
everything shouted
inferior
to us
the patterns
we walked. the ease
with which they
commanded. that
we could not live
by the river
word of lynching
farther south & of course
the signs. i
thought it all to be
as much of nature
as the night sky
the birds of the air
the notion of place
meant not where
you stood but how
you talked
to a white man
place was
the wet brown earth
your knees
sank down in
& philadelphia
was the crescent
moon
Copyright © 2008 by A. B. Spellman. Except from “Things I Don’t Miss From My Youth” from Things I Must Have Known (Coffee House Press, 2008).