March 6: Continuous Deception, Poet of the Week, Natasha Trethewey, "White Lies"

Tonight, I've chosen former Poet Laureate of the United States Natasha Trethewey as Poet of the Week.

And, since we seem to be in a governmental state of continuous deception and redirection, I have chosen Trethewey's poem about not telling the truth.

Saint Marty needs to get his ass moving.  Poets and poetry awaits.

White Lies

by:  Natasha Trethewey

The lies I could tell,

when I was growing up

light-bright, near-white,

high-yellow, red-boned

in a black place,

were just white lies.

I could easily tell the white folks

that we lived uptown,

not in that pink and green

shanty-fled shotgun section

along the tracks. I could act

like my homemade dresses

came straight out the window

of Maison Blanche. I could even

keep quiet, quiet as kept,

like the time a white girl said

(squeezing my hand), Now

we have three of us in this class.

But I paid for it every time

Mama found out.

She laid her hands on me,

then washed out my mouth

with Ivory soap. This

is to purify, she said,

and cleanse your lying tongue.

Believing her, I swallowed suds

thinking they'd work

from the inside out.