Awwha the hell he was talking to himself Wha the hell is this

he was across the street and cattycorner of the Police Department like the schools in town where their students were incarcerated behind tall chainlink fences and patrolled the Police building fronted and was high above the main street and behind a high retaining wall topped by eight foot black barred fence

                                                                           what startled him was on top the fence that wrapped back towards the building and stopped at brick posts which gave way to ramps that provided egress and exit for private vehicles and patrol cars

he hadnt seen anything like it since he was a boy 

the tops were wrapped with coiled elongated sparkling razorwire the sunlight glinted off it

as a boy on a family trip south they went through Cairo Illinois  entering Cairo was a stubborn yellow brick POLICE building sandbag walls ran around it and on top the bags was three foot tall coils of razorwire the building looked as if it was expecting a siege at each of the corners were machinegun bunkers the barrels were relaxedpointing up into the sky

he asked he sat behind his father as he drove he liked the smell of the Brylcreem his father put in his hair Paw Why does the police building look like a fort

To defend against the nigg . .

. . Robert! his mother barked You’ll watch your mouth around the children.

The boy asked, you prefer, I believe, that I don’t lie to him.

No, I don’t, but our racial problems will not be solved until one side stops preferring the terrible injustices Jim Crow laws have heaped on the other. As well you know how I feel about that language. If you can’t answer the boy civilly, don’t answer at all.

it was a startling exchange

the back of his fathers neck reddened

looking at the side of his mothers face he could tell she was angry

Nevermind Paw  I was curious nevermind

when they returned home from the trip his father didnt drive through Cairo he took a roundabout longer route and complained about wasting money on gas  and back home he went to the library to read about Jim Crow laws

he was appalled

                  the lady librarian was appalled he was appalled he told her Youd get along well with my Dad

turns out it wasnt razorwire it was Christmas garland  it wasnt Halloween yet whawas with the garland

funny the unexpectedness of it returned that memory 

                                                        when he learned his father was a racist

 

late October,  2020

1321,  Reggae Friday,  20  11. 20