photo courtesy of stock.xchng/© jjjournal 2006

A new school year, another opportunity to excel,

boarding the bus with friends I had known so well;

we drove for an hour or longer it seemed,

and stepped into hell, not the land that I dreamed.

Faces all staring with anger and hate,

colored monochromatic, a point of debate;

a world so far different than that I had known,

and discrimination I was about to be shown.

I had never known this, seperation exists;

compounded by hatred, anger and fists;

tolerance I’d accepted as part of the world,

then taunts were prevalent, insults were hurled.

White boy and honky, ghost and white trash,

cracker and redneck, like I was some rash;

somehow unworthy to walk through the halls,

fights in the lunch room, the mean taunting calls.

Just four white guys, all military brats,

we’d didn’t understand that we weren’t just cats;

we were the enemy, our skin made us wrong,

my black friends were skittish, racism is strong.

I’ll never forget when the busing came here,

the way that it felt at the start of that year;

I just wanted dignity, a place I could learn,

but as a white kid, the tables had turned.

I look back quite fondly, at that strange freshman year,

the way that the tension slowly disappeared;

we found out the truth, the one hidden away,

regardless of color we all got our say.