Systemic Racism
Source: Common Dreams

My Poetry Corner October 2016 features the poem “The Body Politic” by Nicholas Damion Alexander, poet and teacher of English and Philosophy from the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

Alexander’s work first caught my attention with “My Mother’s Salt” published in the anthology of 100 Calabash Poets, So Much Things To Say (Akashic Books, 2014). In the first of four stanzas, we learn that the poet is of mixed ethnicity – union of a black mother and white father that brought diversity to their lives.

My mother cooked with salt,
flavoring our lives
with the spice of her choice…
A white grain from the sea
that added new worlds of taste
to children made of mixed spices.

But the union of the poet’s parents did not endure. In “The Love of a Father,” Alexander confesses that, with the passage of time, he has come to love his father more. (In the excerpt below, her refers to the poet’s mother.) Continue reading →