My Mom always said that even my skin
was so sensitive, so fair, so total white
it was a complete defining characteristic
so that I resented very implication of it

But nonetheless it was the family story &
she was right, of course, just like always
but then seven decades later I realize now
yes, I was the sensitive one who got sick

When we moved to a new city to a new life
on busy street just up the big truck route
where the drawbridge stopped the traffic
for the leaded gasoline smoking vehicles

To stand in line engines running in front
of our house in which I got so sick I end
up going at both ends rushed to hospital
while my 2 brothers not so very sensitive

Apparently ended up with allergic reaction
to all those car fumes using floor steamer
to moisturize the same bad air that (almost)
killed me but which I escaped in the hospital

While now I can’t help seeing the evil policy
neo-colonial imperialism just wrecks country
after country & somehow can never ever see
the consequences of its own criminal actions

& my brothers are sure I’m too sensitive again
about the long term effects of lead on all three
of us not to mention the full spectrum dominance
our country has been seeking our whole life long.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.