The Worst Year

You should have been poor, black and stupid

You should have been the monkey we saw on TV,

            dancing full of feathers in a crowded avenue.

You shouldn’t understand what we said, but you did.

            You did.

I don’t really know what we were expecting.

A maid, a nanny? A piano teacher, maybe?

You were no such thing. You couldn’t do anything.

            Cook, wash, clean, fix, teach.

You had maids and gardeners in that damned rainforest

            from where you came. You had never been in

            the forest.

You shouldn’t have been light brown and rich.

You should have been the monkey we saw on TV.

            Not this smart ape, humiliating our Aryan child,

            making us look stupid, simpletons.

  

On a day of exceptional compliance we told you that
Arbeit macht frei. It was a compliment, 
            you see?

You never complied after that. You still lived there,

            in the attic, above our heads

but only physically.

You should have been poor, black and stupid

You should have been the monkey we saw on TV

a maid, a nanny, a cook.

A simpleton. A slave.