Oh Racism

I stroll down the streets of  Swellendam

 you  are nowhere to be found

 until I walk into the restaurant 

hunger shutting my eyes to see

 no black people in here

I sit and wait, and wait

to be attended to, all  waiters

ignoring my call, my signaling

comes the manager saying

“ we  do not serve your kind here”

I look all around me and

find the absence of  diversity

starring back at me

 I laugh and say, “Oh there you are”

“Racism, there you are”

 “long time no see”

As I introduce myself

to class and mention

I am African, Liberian

somebody snickers

 silent whispers of “Ebola”

for a minute I thought I was free

of you, a whole day in different

classes and you do not show

as those words were muttered

 I laughed

and said “oh there you are racism”

“Long time no see”

Oh racism you hide

but I see you as I am

stopped and questioned

 by the law wanting to know

why I jog  the streets of Ferguson

“Because I am black?”

for an hour  you do not  show

I sigh and look up to heaven and wonder

when will I die and leave this earth

where to be black is nothing but a crime

I laugh as they cuffed me and said

“Oh racism there you are”

“Long time no see”

This poem was inspired by specific areas in the world that people still suffer racism; by people who experience racism ; by those who died in the hands of racist.