All I could see were the hands.
Large, pale, veiny hands.
Sweaty, palmy, abusive hands.
Gun toting,
beer crutching,
ass scratching,
poker playing,
Chevy car owning
hands.

All I could see were those backyard grilling,
cash flaunting,
golf playing 
hands.
white picket fence installing,
lawn mowing,
how-dee-doo-neighbor-waving, 
bible toting,
9-1-1 dialing,
corrupt, privileged white hands.

White as snow were those nose picking,
chest scratching,
secret-love-of-porn watching,
cigar-smoking,
buttered toast and scramble egg eating,
wife-controlling,
colored folk-hating hands
gripping my neck,
pulling me by my shirt,
and hauling an inner city black boy bussed to a suburban predominantly White school 
across the classroom, 
straight to the principle's office. 

Meanwhile, the white kids in the classroom, 
including two 'acceptable' Black girls, 
observed in shock and befuddlement as I was yanked
like a little thug with white hands around my neck.

Traumatized as I was after the humiliating incident,
my first grade teacher, 
with his thick mustache, conducted a meeting with my parents.
In an effort to justify grabbing my neck he argued that I was misbehaving in class. 
Which compelled him to put his 
whiskey drinking,
collar popping,
bar hopping,
trouser-ironing,
hair-gelling,
White suburban hands across my neck.
And to make a long story short, 
I never saw this White prick again.
 
Even now that I am an adult
I'm sensitive to touch,
because of those white hands.
Even a harmless tap on my shoulder,
or an affectionate pat on my back,
would send me into a fury. 
Cold and resistant.

Physical contact seems all too familiar in that it's violating 
and condescending because of those gun toting, 
beer crutching,
ass scratching,
poker playing,
Chevy car owning,
backyard grilling,
cash flaunting,
golf playing, 
white picket fence installing,
lawn mowing,
how-dee-doo-neighbor-waving,
bible toting,
9-1-1 dialing,
nose picking,
chest scratching,
secret-love-of-porn watching,
cigar-smoking,
buttered toast and scramble egg eating,
wife-controlling,
colored folk-hating, 
whiskey drinking,
collar popping,
bar hopping,
trouser-ironing,
hair-gelling,
White suburban hands
of that shameless offender who
grabbed my neck.