Your Workplace’s Newly Required Diversity Training
I hear the distant whistle of an approaching train
and I think of movement
Moving people
moving goods
moving people as goods
Across this vast country
Marking time and space
I’ll never write a train poem like Hayden
or actualize the metaphor like Whitehead
But I hear the whistle of an approaching train
and I think of hot summer nights
and police whistles echoing through public squares
where people were sold as goods
Across this vast country
Dogs and guns trained on the public
Re-training hate still leaves you with hate
further down the track
I hear the whistle of an approaching train
And I can’t tell which way it’s coming from
or which way it’s going
Because it is so loud it seems to be coming from and going to
everywhere at once
But I hear the whistle of an approaching train
and I think of movements
4 thoughts on "Your Workplace’s Newly Required Diversity Training"
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What an interesting pairing–diversity training and approaching train! First poem I’ve ever read on diversity training.
Beautifully said, and a poignant point
“Re-training hate still leaves you with hate further down the track” are my favorite lines.
Maybe you can write about Cheapside downtown sometime, where they used to auction slaves?
Great poem! Trains are present and visceral and fraught. Thank you for joining us on this adventure.