A Poem Also About Whiteness
A Poem Also About Whiteness
—Forrest Hamer
I have never dreamed of being white. In my dreams I have always been black as much as I can see, though sometimes my parents are not black. One night I was taking care of my parents who were old and white; they were as familiar to me as parents are in dreams, and it wasn't until I was awake I noticed I've never met these particular people. I hope they are well. A man I know dreams himself sometimes as Asian and he asks if I think dreams are expressions of wishes; I ask him to suppose this is true, and he doubts it. The next night I am a white woman granting him six wishes though all he ever wishes for is time. He misses the Mexican housekeeper he had growing up; since knowing me he thinks about her more than he has in years. What do I think of this, he asks. A woman who is black and white sometimes dreams of herself as white and sometimes as black, and she is never both things in her dreams. She thinks this happens because she is always choosing one parent or the other, blown back and forth between them like an oak leaf in late November. Her skin is the color of amber, but in her dreams she is a woman the color of teak or a woman the color of milk. I have to admit I have wished at times to be white. Usually, I am colored and awake, imagining myself invisible.
Mark Forrester
Post a Comment
Reader Comments