Black Sheep Poem

"We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,

    Baa! Baa! Baa!

We're little black sheep who've gone astray,

    Baa—aa—aa!

Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,

Damned from here to Eternity,

God ha' mercy on such as we,

    Baa! Yah! Bah! "
(Kipling was talking about a shamed by a scandal
young man who enlisted as common soldier to hide
from society when he qualified as an officer.)


Innocents die.
We carry protest signs,
We enroll in "kindness training"
We take days for racial fairness class.
We offer thoughts and prayers as wine.


Public High School is a place where children are parked.
They are bullied by huge jocks and popular mean kids.
They are taught that only the college bound survive.
They wait in line; but, the system fails to change.
They play on their phone, the internet is all.
They wear the same jeans, shoes, t-shirts.
They conform, dye their hair to match.
They don't step on cracks, in fear.
They practice duck, hide, run.
They don't build houses.
They don't produce.
They don't plan.
They exist.

They are technicolor centers of the kaleidoscope where movie stars are heroes
They believe they will last as a crystal never breaking or fading or falling
They are earth to become seed and dust for poppies on the road side


Does the black sheep have wool to sell?
We are not creating a kinder world.
We must produce change.

Caroline Gerardo A Poem A Day National Poetry Month
copyright April 23, 2018