One of the good ones

Following in Brian's example I present a poem by Jeff Nelson. Brian and I have known Jeff now for 7 years. Jeff is one of the best poets in Detroit and is about to head off to a national poetry competition in Miami after winning Detroit.

Good...
God damn it! Stop calling me that!
I hate it when you call me that!
The good Samaritan.

Is that the only story of His you even know?

Stop pulling me out
every time you want some group of little kids
to be "good" or do "good".

You know, He never called me that!

The "good" Samaritan
When you call me that
you act as if I did
something...
unusual

Well, fuck you! Is that good enough for ya'!

I didn't do anything my dad
or my brothers or any of my friends
wouldn't have done.

You think you can get away with calling me that?
Well, you don't even know what you don't even know...
that my mother taught me what her mother taught her
what her mother taught her before that...

See I come from a place
where you could be six blocks from home
doing somethin' you know you weren't
supposed to be doin'
have some lady you've never seen before
catch you doin' it
have her take you by the ear,
march you the six blocks
back to where you came from,
preachin' at you the whole way
about how she knew that your momma,
a woman she did not know,
had raised you to do better
and when she finally got to your house
would knock on your door,
introduce herself to your momma,
who would invite her new found friend
in for coffee and cookies so they could
discuss the situation
before you got the whoppin' of your life
for disgracin' the family name in the neighborhood

So, don't you call me that!
Don't single me out!
Don't make me the exception!
Don't say that I'm "articulate and clean!"
Don't try to explain my actions away
by imagining that I went to some nice school
the kind of school you send your kids to
probably on some scholarship
to play sports you say to yourself

You call me that so you can ignore the rest of us
ignore our suffering...
and let me tell you what we know about suffering
we know what it means to be
patronized, downsized, minimized,
stigmatized, ostracized, marginalized,
victimized, demonized, brutalized...

So, when I saw that poor bastard lying in the ditch
I just bent down to help his sorry ass
that's it!

I didn't help him because
I'm good.
I helped him because... shit, when you've been in the
ditch yourself...

Forget it... just have a "good" day.