Sweet chile

Eyes wide shut

How most white Americans function

As I rock a sweet white baby to sleep

Much like my ancestors rocking future oppressors

These fat cheeks, tiny toes

Nuzzled into my neck

Milky breaths of newness

With the old sour taste of racism

Eyes wide shut

Now that the performance of alliship has waned

What do your white circles look like

Waiting for Idol to return and

Pumpkin spice latte

As I sit at the feet of a nursing white mom

Thanking my ancestors who did this same job

But no choice of their own

Thanking them for the strength they gave their babies so I could be here

Eyes wide shut

As the most unqualified whitest of women

Lifetime appointment to our highest court

Affirmative action was always for them

Pink pussy hats be damned

My lips brown

This doula work,

I do for my people

I need to eat too

So I do it for white folks

But I have a voice and change the narrative

Oh you do that because your culture tells you, but mine tells me different

Make sure your children's books have Black people as the main character not background coloring

Eyes wide shut is a conscious choice of white people now

Yesterday

Tomorrow

These issues as American as baseball, lynchings, apple pie

As I lay a sweet white baby girl wondering will she grow to be unqualified and take up far too much space