After Zuko (2019)
Contents
Poetry
For Piccolo
Little Black boy’s first Black male role model
is green. Broken, grumpy, hell-bent
on hurting someone, like his father. To be a child
is to inherit sin.
still
when there was no man to play dad
there was a man who would destroy the moon
just to let a boy sleep soundly. Sure, he made
chaos. But he made it in your name.
redemption
be the solace every man wants to earn
without working for it. i see the moon
and think of my father, guiltless being, who must
see it too. A boy learns man to mean
leaving
a child to grow up in a forest. A Black boy dreams
of a man who appears, after many seasons, with a new
soul, who says little, but touches your forehead soft
and teaches you everything. A boy is waiting to find
man
in someone. All my heroes were evil once
but at least they returned in time for dinner.
Imagine that? All it takes to be a good man
is to come back.
For Zuko
Yes, I too have known fire. And yes,
I too have wondered if I come from
a burnt people. A people who have always
been ablaze. I too have hated my own hands
.
And yes, I too have been prince to a kingdom of folk
and then dishonored them. I have worn a white mask.
I have cut my hair to look less like me. I too
have sought to be anything other than the ashes
of another man’s sin. I have tried to earn my existence
in a nation that would not claim me. I have scorched
the ones who care most. I have searched the countryside
to find something I always had.
And yes, I too have been unworthy of my mother’s love.
And yes, I too have known the right thing to do
and done otherwise. I too have been a refugee
and a product of my tribe. Yes, I am still running.
I too am afraid of being a good man. And yes, I too
have been beaten by water until it felt like a baptism.
And yes, I too would burn the whole forest down
just to feel the warmth against my skin
(Dave Harris)
Author
Either a playwright who writes music or an author who writes plays, Dave Harris is. Or maybe just a West Philly poet, Idk Fam. His work was featured, among others, in the Huffington Post, Button Poetry, Upworthy, Yale Repertory Theater, UMASS Amherst.
Racism Issue
After Zuko is a poem from his book entitled Patricide, which mentions a character from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zuko is from Fire Country, a place whose inhabitants are able to bend and manipulate fire in this fictional world. Harris wisely mentions the iconic fictional show in this clever piece about the difficulties of a black man to grapple with his identity and masculinity as a way to illustrate his struggle to be a black person in a world that freely accepts white people, but treats people of colour with contempt. Harris is a poet and playwright originally from West Philadelphia who graduated from Yale University.
Reference
- Harris, Dave. 2019. After Zuko. Retrieved January 1 2020.
- Singh, Chayelene. July 7 2020. 7 Powerful Poems About Injustice & Racial Discrimination. Retrieved January 1 2020.