Coach Parks says when White People
decide to round up all the Black Men in America
they will loop a knot for me too.

Coach Parks says I need to have sex because
a man needs sex like he needs oxygen; said
my dick size better meet expectations.

Coach Parks says I am part of the Talented Tenth,
my mission to uplift the Black Man; says
if I marry a White woman I’m a race traitor.

Coach Parks never does teach me to box; he does not
always pick up or call back when I leave a message;
he thinks himself my Black-Male-Role-Model,

the father they say every young black boy needs.
If you see him, tell my father when
Coach Parks calls me son his mouth smells

like a rain soaked tomato garden.
Tell my father, I call Coach Parks dad
when he loops an arm round my neck, but
behind his back, I cross my fingers.

Dillon Thomas Jones is a writer living in Pittsburgh, PA. He holds a BA in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an MFA in Creative Writing candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. He writes poetry, fiction, and cultural criticism about television, film, and books. He is currently at work on a memoir about growing up the adopted and black only son of a white single mother in Omaha, NE. Contact him at dillon.jones6@gmail.com

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