Inaugural Poem

The last time

I believed

like this

I was a small girl

celebrating African American History Month

in a February classroom.

When the two or three black

students at the miniature Catholic

school were

singled out.

We were an inaccurate scale

model of the real world.

A microcosm of

privileged kids

and strictly

monitored hem lengths.

Still

I understood

that dream

from the famous speech

by a black man.

And it was mine

as well.

And the last time I believed

like this

I was a small girl.