On The Black Bus

At the airport

In New Orleans,

Everybody

Else from my flight

Takes the shuttle

To the hotel.

It costs ten bucks.

I take the bus.

Dollar fifty.

I'm the only

White person on

The bus but with

My eight fifty

I buy some beer

When I'm downtown.

I look at one

Of the dollars

Before I hand

It to the clerk.

On back it says

“E pluribus

Unum”. Latin

“Many made one”.

America

Is a strange land

And New Orleans

Is where it all

Wash down to sea

At the bottom

Of USA.

If anywhere

The people should

Be mixed as one,

It is this place.

Instead they mix

Class with one's race.

The slave auctions

Are no more, but

The auctioneer's

Chant echoes on.