Jerome Sala: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A History of White People

 

white people were paid well

not to witness

the fact that they were white

 

you know the theory

white isn't a color

but color's unlimited absence

 

white goes with anything

that's why it seemed fair that white people

conquered the world

 

they were the real invisible men

cause they could perch on top of a country

and say they weren't there

 

they could move through its neighborhoods

like mysterious aliens

with this difference:

 

in ufological lore

aliens often infiltrate a world

without its inhabitants knowing about it

 

but when white people invaded

everyone could see them

but themselves

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Jerome Sala’s books include Corporations Are People, Too! (NYQ Books),The Cheapskates (Lunar Chandelier), Look Slimmer Instantly (Soft Skull Press), and the forthcoming How Much? New and Selected Poems (NYQ Books). His poems and essays have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions, Pleiades, Boundary 2, Rolling Stone, The Best American Poetry series, and many others. His blog–on poetry, pop culture and everyday life, is espressobongo. [“A History of White People” originally appeared in Hanging Loose magazine (circa 2004) and Look Slimmer Instantly 2005.]

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                                      Emma Amos, About Whitness, 1995. Oil and laser transfer on paper. Whitney Museum of American Art

Comments

[Jack Skelley]

It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me.

[Grace Cavalieri]

"everyone could see them
but themselves"

Brilliant. Mysterious and yet clear.

[Don Berger]

An intriguing, smart, uncanny, beautifully unfolding theory here by a poet whose work first thrilled me over forty years ago. I'm so happy to find him here on this site, and look forward to his forthcoming New and Selected! Here's to Terence and Jerome!

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for the comment.

[Eileen]

Wonderful poem!

[Clarinda]

Terrific poem. Thanks, both of you!
In color theory based on light, not pigment, white is the PRESENCE of all colors, not broken down prismatically to individual colors. Now wouldn’t that b great— sigh—

[Terence Winch]

Clarinda---thanks for that comment.

[Linda Hickman]

I really like this poem. I can identify with it. What does that say, I wonder. Very good. I have always been interested in the alien side of the planet.

[Peter Kearney]

Here is a simple yet profound poem that summarizes a long history effortlessly. Their lack of color gives the whites an invisibility that allows them to conquer. But history brings change and the whites are eventually seen for what they are, though the whites themselves remain unchanged.

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

Brilliant Jerome, invisible ink, part of the substance of life, the parchment itself.

thank you for the revelation.

Indran

Indran Amirthanayagam,
Author Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant

[lally]

as always with jerome sala poems, my first reaction is 'wow' then 'how'd he do that?'

[Patricia S. Jones]

good to see a poem like this and esp. from a poet who is as terrific as Jerome Sala. thanks.

[Alan Bernheimer]

Well that pretty much nails it! Thanks, Jerome and Terence.