Arts for the 21st Century

The White Cliffs of Dover

Are composed of chalk,

like the white chalk writing out

of history on a black blackboard.

 

Like a white chalk filling in

sentences of the black experience,

scratching the surface, but proud

 

to see such cursive penmanship

flowing across the dark. Like

the wine dark sea of slavery when,

 

like red wine captured in the vials   

of bottles, blood was shed.  The bottles

emptied so prismed light might bob

 

around model ships. The White Cliffs     

of Dover where a White Homeland

rolled out its banner, a peace flag

 

waving, a white lie rising up from

the deep. Nursed by the white

milky mouth of the mother country.