RABBIT'S FOOT

Was it your luck
that always brought my mother back to you?
---A wishful thinking?
Or did you use a horseshoe?
I have always tried to make sense of it.
---The habitual offensiveness.
With my black eyes
And an eight ball that always says,
"Sorry, try again."
And the bucktooth
You almost knocked loose.
Because I wouldn't eat the greens
You'd put out for me.
Yellow squash, purple eggplants.
They all made me puke.
But I swallowed it down.
---All the way down for you.
Descendent of a German.
You were my Herr---Furtrapper!
Always caging me
With your white power.
But I was the black cat
That always crossed your path.
The 13 to your 7.
A reminder that I was still
Just an Indian.
You feared me.
Perhaps that is why
You tried to kill me.
You superstitious fool!
For what white angry god will get ahold of me?
What red devil will get ahold of you?
With my gypsy looks
And skin that warns,
If you come near me
You are doomed to misfortune.
So you taught me how to be
A good little christian.
I let the old pagan ways
Get burned at the stake in me.
And like salt
I learned to throw those convictions
Over my shoulder.
Seven years with you
I learned to never break another mirror.
But in this world of symbols
I was an omen.
---The upside down,
The black raven.
A mere foot!
---Of a higher superstition