White lies

Fotografia de Maurice Harris

The lies I could tell,

when I was growing up

light-bright, near-white,

high-yellow, red-boned

in a black place,

were just white lies.

I could easily tell the white folks

that we lived uptown,

not in that pink and green

shanty-fied shotgun section

along the tracks. I could act

like my homemade dresses

came straight out the window

of Maison Blanch. I could even

keep quiet, quiet as kept,

like the time a white girl said

(squeezing my hand), Now

we have three of us in this class.

But I paid for it every time

Mama found out.

She laid her hands on me,

then washed out my mouth

with Ivory soap. This

is to purify, she said,

and cleanse your lying tongue.

Believing her, I swallowed suds

thinking they'd work

from the inside out.

Natasha Trethewey

* Natasha Trethewey nasceu em 1966 em Gulfport, Mississippi, numa época em que o casamento interracial de seus pais era considerado crime naquele estado. No certificado de nascimento, no espaço destinado a ser preenchido com a raça da mãe, surge a expressão "colored", e no do pai, um americano branco nascido na Nova Escócia, surge a expressão "Canadian".

O poema "White Lies", de Natasha Trethewey - escritora que pertence à mais jovem geração de poetas norte-americanos, - plasma num tom inocente a atitude adolescente de uma rapariga mestiça, filha de pai branco e mãe negra, portanto, mas suficientemente clara para conseguir "passar por branca" numa sociedade subjugada pelo enorme peso do racismo.

Daqui