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November 2016
Thomas J. Erickson
thomerick@aol.com
I am an attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and often write or think about writing poems while I'm sitting in court.  My chapbook, The Lawyer Who Died in the Courthouse Bathroom, was published by Parallel Press (University of Wisconsin Libraries) in 2013, and my book, The Biology of Consciousness was published by Pebblebrook Press in April, 2016.  I am a member of the Hartford Avenue Poets in Milwaukee.

​Blue


I leave my white town, 
to drive to the black crime 
scene in the black neighborhood 
where my black client maybe 
shot the black girl on the porch 
of the house where the blood
stain has turned black.

I take notes in my white 
notebook amid the white 
noise of the radios and insects 
and passing cars and then on 
to my office in the white 
Third Ward with the white 
bars and white restaurants 
where I talk to my white 
friends about the black men 
who played basketball 
in front of the white
crowd last night on tv.

Later, I go to the jail and 
pass by the white jailers 
to talk to my black client 
about the charge of the black 
on black crime brought by 
the white DA before we go
in front of the white judge
and eventually the white
jurors who live in their white
enclaves leading their white
lives and afterwards I’ll
talk to his black family
about the time he will serve
in the black prison up north
with the white prison guards

and then I’ll drive home 
past the white park to my house 
in the white part of town
and relax and listen to the black 
saxophonist who will turn
me blue for awhile before 
I go to bed to dream my
colorless dreams.
©2016 Thomas J. Erickson
Editor's Note:  If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF
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