Strange Fruit

Here’s the poem for day 13 of National Poetry Month:

Ugli fruit seems such a peculiar name

to bestow on fruit that has an ancestral

lineage that no average fruit can compete

with. The name plants seeds of

stereotypical thinking so deeply ingrained

& associated with name, one has to wonder

was it done on purpose?

Did some non-native take a bite

of ugli fruit so many years ago,

expecting it to taste one way &

when he discovered it tasted

better than expected,

he started calling it ugli fruit

& the name, it just stuck,

though people continued to taste

the fruit and knew the fruit was

anything but ugly.

Only

no one dared

broach the subject of

changing the name cuz change

is strange & something no one

hardly welcomes. So let��s just

let things remain the same.

Even if they are wrong.

And

that��s why it��s easier for you

to judge my identity based on

the content of a 10-second

sound bite of information

than

to actually get to know me.

The ugly truth is that

strange fruit does exist��

they perpetuate violence in

the stead of humanity & reject

genuine love towards one another��

& some of them just may

resemble me. But that strange fruit

is not me. I��ve been trying to get you

to see. But now I��ll offer you just my

silence.