When I open my closet
I see a tee
nestled among others
End Hunger
Save Tibet
Peace Not War
White letters on black
Black Lives Matter
It is carefully washed
neatly folded
empty and flat
It stares at me
Implacable
Wear me
my tee demands
Wear me till my blackness
scorches your white skin
Wear me till my tightness
squeezes your breath
Wear me like a hair shirt
Wear me like a punishment
Wear me like Hope
Stop trying to wash me clean
after 400 years of violence and oppression
Stop trying to fold me away
in a drawer or a prison
Don’t be that liberal person of privilege
with a tee shirt for every cause du jour
Wear me
until I fall in tatters
from your shoulders
Wear me until I am no longer needed
Wear me till your nakedness says
Black Lives Matter