White Priviledge

White privilege
never knowing that the opportunity couldn't have existed.
My "not enough" is more than most will have

No one will ever take off of my porch the twelve hefty bags filled with clothes I didn't have money to wash or closets to store because the city and the neighbors thought they were trash.

Because I will always have bootstraps to pull up when times are tough
and therapy if I am sad
a massage if I am sore
a doctor if I am ill
vitamins and fish oil if the organic food I buy isn't enough

Even if my income isn't much there will always be
someone else to surprise me with a free ticket to the opera
or couch out of a Kenwood Mansion
or a recommendation for a job I will turn down
because "it just doesn't feel right."
a scholarship or grant money
steaks, goat cheese and pomegranate seeds

Will I continue to pick the garbage up
in our lawn
blown in from from next door.
Will I keep going and pick theirs up too or,
Will I call the city and ask them to take it away
Even if it turns out to be the family's clothes
Will I keep trying to learn the names and stories
behind the midnight fights in the street? Or,
Will I just close the windows and turn the central air on
Dial 911 from the comfort of my bedroom and fall back
to sleep while someone else sorts it out.

Can we share our sandbox
with our neighbors even if it means
it will sometimes get trashed and battered
our toys strewn far and wide down the block
sand dumped in rocks
rocks dumped in sand
Because my daughters need someone to play with
and I need community
and I want to be proven wrong.