Draft (unsent)

Hey niece

Who lives in Baltimore

Whose school must have been closed today

We don’t talk much

I mean, I have your email, but you’re a teenager

And I’m a young aunt, but not a cool one

More like the nerdy aunt with bad shoes

Your mom hopes and fears you are not too much like

What do you think of the riots? what do you say about Freddie Gray?

What do you and your friends (who I remember, shrieking in the rec room)

Think? What do you say to each other?

When I was your age, we thought it was cool to be “color-blind”

But then, looking at my high school photos, “all your friends are white”

Nothing to see here

We said, gay rights is the civil rights struggle of our day, but even that not till college

Black lives matter is the civil rights struggle of today

Is that what you would say?

What would you say to me, if I sent you this email

Instead of making this poem?

I’m afraid I’m afraid to ask