… everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam.
—NINA SIMONE
There was a time
when being a white man
on trial in Mississippi
was like swapping lies
in the barbershop or at a church picnic.
Looking across at the Judases
that helped find me guilty
the third time
was like looking at a souvenir postcard
of a lynching
only it’s me playing jump rope
with the tree
and the Christmas morning faces
in the crowd
is all carpetbaggers and Jews.