White people, don’t

[busker]

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.

[matsunosuperfan]

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.

why should I, the reader, care about any of this? Poem seems to be written for itself.

[busker]

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.

why should I, the reader, care about any of this? Poem seems to be written for itself.

You might, if you were an English language poet in Tehran. Or Yerevan. Or Murmansk.

[matsunosuperfan]

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.

why should I, the reader, care about any of this? Poem seems to be written for itself.

You might, if you were an English language poet in Tehran. Or Yerevan. Or Murmansk.

Fair dues, satire has its target and I seem to lack the proper context. Still one senses it needs sharpening to really pierce. "names of your wines like nuclear codes," that level of sharpness throughout, please!