In the heart of Georgia
The fast foods chains fatten the black child
To a venomous infarction of heart capillaries
Knowing the black child who grows into a strapping young man
Has a few extra genes to not make
It across the Marsh creek to the Gettysburg field
Of precarious life.
And the ghosts of Lincoln
Hover from the top of basketball hoops
On a lonely court near the capital Washington
As a negro boy bounces a basketball
Off the square behind the ring
Hoping to escape the phantoms
Of his genetic make-up, the many fallen genes
That makes fat deposits inside arteries.
And in this tragic predisposition
It is the fast food chains that kill more black men
Than hood violence or rifled white men in uniform
And through the painted face of a clown
The black child will learn that
It is not the pantomimed skin that is the enemy
Only the obese burger that is served
By a lass in a striped garment
And as milky white teeth grip into a patty and bun
Little white plaques will form inside
The tributaries of an obese heart
Promising the oblivious black man
One for the road.
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Published by Curiosity-driven life (Dilantha Gunawardana)
Dr Dilantha Gunawardana graduated from the University of Melbourne, as a molecular biologist, and moonlights as a poet. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dilantha lives in a chimeric universe of science and poetry. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Canary Literary Magazine, Boston Accent, Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry, Zingara Poetry Review, The Wagon and Ravens Perch, among others. Dilantha too has two anthologies of poetry, 'Kite Dreams' (2016) and 'Driftwood' (2017), both brought to the readership by Sarasavi Publishers, and is working on his third poetry collection (The Many Constellations of Home). Dilantha’s pet areas of teaching and research, include, Nitrogen Fixation, RNA biology, Phytoremediation, Agricultural Biology, and Bioethics & Biosafety. Dilantha blogs at – https://meandererworld.wordpress.com/ -, where he has nearly 2000 poems.
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