20160622 (curse)

"Poet and co-founder of Guide to Kulchur, RA Washington, says the people of Cleveland feel invisible - to their politicians, their employers and each other ..." Obviously Mr  Washington has not heard of how one NBA championship has "healed" and "redeemed" Cleveland from its historical ethnic and LGBTQ tensions

Has it been ten days since the Pulse

Massacre? The conscience of some

People need for the killings to have

Been more recent or for there to have

Been more than forty-nine (of the 

LGBTQ community) for them to 

Revise their moral blindness.

I conclude this from an experience 

This afternoon of walking Loki 

Down Franklin to W32, when 

He’d become tangled in the leash.

I bent over to free him as a

Sedanful of white young men

(Maybe drunk, maybe from the

Sports fanaticism—can’t prove

It? Don’t use it) came speeding by

With one spirited lad (oops, too

Much like “drunken”) screaming

From an open left rear window

“YOU FATASSED FAGGOT,” 

Then roars westward. I venture

That young man was not in tears

Over the deaths in Orlando. I

Venture further he was likely

Quite happy about the killings—

Not a terrible stretch. Though I

Was upset to be reminded only

Last night the sole shorts 

That fit my girth were size 48

From Big and Tall at Kohl’s.

It is hateful to presume every

Male in Ohio City walking a 

Part-poodle is gay and worthy

Of street heckling. Now hear 

This: I was hated for five years 

At the Post Office in the seventies

For being Jewish by some guy

Who never bothered to find out

Whether I was Jewish—he was 

Satisfied just hating Jews—he

Didn’t need a real Jew for his

Misplaced execration. So the white

Dudes didn’t really need an actual

Homosexual for their abominance—

Any man in 44113 will do. Another

Instance, similar in character, occurred

When I was dropping off boxes 

Of used household batteries to

A recycler. I spoke with a white

Guy (younger than I but generally

Past the median for men) who 

Complained that he couldn’t

Stand that the Cavaliers pay some

Players millions per year,

Who “couldn’t hold a job at

A car wash.” I sensed he was

Not accusing any white Cavs 

Of excessive salary, but tell me,

When was the last time you 

Saw a white guy working in 

A car wash? Wait a minute! 

I thought the Cavaliers

Winning a championship was

Healing the racial rift—unifying

The ethnics under the aegis of

King James? Maybe this guy

Wasn’t from the NE OH area—

Could been from Parma and not

Have gotten the news that “all

Men are created equal.” This

Isn't my first rodeo.Local 

Radio and TV will pitch a  

“Redeemed Cleveland,” finally

Freed from its “Curse.” Actually

Once the hubbub dies down

Sports will go on as before.

The racial disparities and 

LGBTQ enmities of the city

Will not have been healed

Nor its pusillanimous heart

Redeemed.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016