I Wrote Another Poem

"Map Room 2014"


What is it like
To be on the wrong side of history?

It is almost too perfect.

These pasty white boys from Nevada
Trying to play baseball
Against a south side team
Essentially 100% black.

With the whole city of Chicago behind them,
Rahm Emmanuel shutting down streets,
Clogging the intersections, bringing downtown to a standstill.
But fuck the drivers.
This is our team, these incandescent chocolate-colored boys
From the south side.

Essentially 100% white, pity these Nevada boys who
Didn't quite realize they were up against something bigger
Than themselves, than a baseball diamond.

If they could be here in this
Essentially 100% white beer bar on the north side of Chicago
(with maybe a few Asians)
Who cheer uproariously when these black boys
From the south side make a double play
And kill the dreams of Bill Buckner-looking mother fuckers.

Maybe they would realize that
It turns out you can be on the wrong side of history
Even if you are lily white.
And maybe John McCain could have told you
For sure Mitt Romney could have told you
These south side boys, with black skin and the whole city behind them
Are not to be fucked with.

It is almost too perfect.

These effete north side white liberals
On whose narrow shoulders nothing too important can be placed
Flinging magnetic curses
Have somehow understood
Have grasped something bigger and far more implacable than themselves.
And so Jackie Robinson West
(it is, as I tried to warn you, almost too perfect)
Advances to the finals
Where they will face the Koreans
Who know a little something about being on the wrong side of history.