Oppression Reflection: A Meal
Sterling L. Brown

Oppression tastes like shattering
glass with pieces that slice
a sweet potato pie that bleeds
brown blood from thawed, old meat
that needs to be cooked all the way
through a series of incline/declines
of heat that can't be cooled
without more than simply winter
or more subtle changes of climate
influencing the seasonal patterns
of emotional, evil animals like
us.

As beautifully ugly we are, we are vain
for reasons only an asshole would know
enough to think we run the minstrel
when All Americans are white in a way
But between us, the rest of the world is
black
like me and my father, and mother like our coffee
and toast and other cooked foods cause we
can't eat under cooked meat.
It can kill you.