03-22-2011, 06:13 AM
I don't recall the context of the conversation.
Just that remark my brother made,
when I asked him if he hated blacks:
'I don't like it when they fill the beaches'.
"They" as the umbrella term
one would use for mice, or gnats,
scurrying legions of lice everywhere,
which is perhaps how he regarded them.
We've both matured since then, of course.
I was always self-righteous in my liberality,
my meek rebellion against our father,
who couldn't have cared either way,
while my brother continued his hate for a time,
wore it like a hand-me-down shirt
which never quite fit, tailored as it was
for a much different man.
Just that remark my brother made,
when I asked him if he hated blacks:
'I don't like it when they fill the beaches'.
"They" as the umbrella term
one would use for mice, or gnats,
scurrying legions of lice everywhere,
which is perhaps how he regarded them.
We've both matured since then, of course.
I was always self-righteous in my liberality,
my meek rebellion against our father,
who couldn't have cared either way,
while my brother continued his hate for a time,
wore it like a hand-me-down shirt
which never quite fit, tailored as it was
for a much different man.
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe