Doctor Grandma

I think our car will find the way,
It knows this trip
from South to North,
where the Mountains rise before us,
Ancient beings, asleep but alive,
They breathe and sigh as we drive through
their winding curves and valleys,
to the rolling hills of Tennessee,
and then on to Kentucky.
I feel almost home
when we reach the rolling waters
of the Ohio,
where the waters stretch wide,
and slaves crossed over
to the beckoning arms of freedom.
A church now sits on the other side
my great-grandfather’s wife attended,
a stop on the Underground Railroad
in the time she was a member.
I love the South, the Palmetto trees,
the fresh smell of pine forest,
The Sun that greets me every day,
the artists and the people,
but I can’t help feeling a sense of pride
when I cross the great Ohio,
and know that my great-grandfather
wore a uniform of blue,
and once the lands lay flat on their back
and the Sky reaches down to kiss them,
when I see the corn and soybean fields,
then I know how much I missed them.
                            — cfblack 12-21-17

Child Within

This child within,

if you could know, right now,

Would it better prepare you

to love him or her,

to know if this fetus were boy, or girl?

This child, within,

if you could know, right now,

would you want to know who this child will love,

and if they are gay or lesbian?

Does it make you feel vulnerable?

Does it make you sad?

Does it make you worried,

or make you glad?

As parents, we are not entitled to choose

who are children will become,

Science-based learning cannot pre-select

hetero, transgendered, or intersexed,

We can’t punch a card and order us

a musician, athlete, or architect,

If we allow research to freely pursue

knowledge of us that is evidence-based,

we clearly see our complexity,

the beauty of human diversity,

and our capacity to love unconditionally

the child who is born to us.

cfblack 12-18-17          Based on the decision of our administration to ban these words from use by the Center for Disease Control and other health agencies: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”