Where do I sit on the bus?
If there is a white man in my seat,
do I wait for the next bus?
Am I colored if I am darker than
the brown paper bag?
If I have a half-black child,
will you hold your tongue before them
because you know not which slur to use?
If I am in love with a white man,
will I be the only hell-bound one?
If you baptize my son in your church today,
will he be welcome in your school tomorrow?
If I say I am not black
as your grandfathers did,
will you serve me at Thanksgiving?
Where will I go after sundown
when the picnic blankets are folded
and the widows have buried the bodies?
When you place us in internment camps,
will you call it a plantation?
When you have too many white hoods to make
and not enough Jane Crows to make them,
will you outsource the labor to China?
From which fountain should I drink
the water I will spit in your face?
If I speak with an accent while I hold your throat,
will you still be laughing?
If I do not comply,
will the officer still say he feared for his life?
If I do not comply,
will he still say I looked like a demon?
If I stop asking questions and start marching,
will I still be your model minority?
May I take the white man’s seat
if I set the bus on fire?
