White people, don’t

[wasellajam]

White people, don’t 

White people, don’t try to be profound 
unless you’re Slavic, or eastern enough
to have identifiable problems, like ceded ground
and ink frozen in inkwells. Or Latin, doing it tough 
through dictatorial cycles. Or British, because the pound
has fallen so much that your ex-colonies are chuffed,
and Shakespeare gives you the right. Or continental, because you’re stuffed
with a welfare state and terminal decline,
so all you can do is jealously guard the names of your wines
like nuclear codes.

Basically, if you’re American, don’t write.
No one wants one more poem about growing up poor in Tennessee
or blacks being lynched. Sing someone else’s plight,
not the tragedy of suburban Dave
taking up up all the airwaves.

Don't worry about us, we're working hard on making our lives suck, getting there.

What Americans Can Write About

Escape routes from our broken hearts.