Day 4: The Belt {National Poetry Month & 30 Day Blog Challenge}

WRITE A POEM
Think beyond your immediate surroundings.
Tonight is a total lunar eclipse that will last three hours and 29 minutes (with the total eclipse of the moon lasting five minutes). Write a poem about the eclipse or about your favorite constellation or star.

Interestingly the prompt*, imho, doesn't really have anything to do with the poetry shared. The poem is "Driving while black," by Mwatabu S. Okantah. I rather like the poem; it is what I see here in Cleveland area. I'm white and I see things from a different perspective though. Do I see that a person is black when they are driving? No. I see the car and the way it moves in connection with other cars, then I notice the driver. Does their color affect how I feel about their driving? I'd like to say it doesn't. Here in the town I live whites are actually a minority so most of those who drive are black. It is logical to think that when a car is diving crazy like it is a black person driving. It is also logical to think that when a car is being driven sanely, it is a black person driving. It's a 'person' kind of thing; their race doesn't have anything to do with it. Or it shouldn't and I think that is what Okantah thinks as well but he knows better.

But the prompt is to write outside of ourselves, outside of our world I suppose. Well, specifically about the eclipse or a constellation. I'll attempt it.

Beyond

The belt is relatively short
That stretches across the expanse
Of sky.

And yet it is light years
Away from where we are
Here.

It cannot be worn by any man,
Even the tallest or
Stoutest.

Orion's belt is fit for one and
One only, who resides
Up there.


*If the link doesn't work, click here, and search for "04 April, 2015: Driving While Black".