My favorite magazine of writing, The SUN, just published another poem of mine called How Therapists Dance in their February 2011 edition. It's a great edition focusing on social justice issues. This poem hints at learning to dance with culture, privilege, isolation, and belonging.
Check out the full listing of my SUN Magazine contributions at:
Dane Cervine in The SUN Magazine
How Therapists Dance
Washington DC after a conference,
we head into the urban night
led by the jive-talking white ghetto boy
raised in black foster homes
bent on showing us the town. We
wander from night club to bar,
a mix of Black, Asian, Latino, White
earnest saviors eager to party, to strip
the mind of diagnostic prognostication,
to revel. Eventually, one by one, our group
slips back to the hotel till I am alone
with a young black woman who says
I want to show you one more place.
Down an alley, she leads me to a club
where I am the only white face in the joint,
and while she is gone to the bathroom,
the owner saunters over, asks how I’m doing,
says if you have any trouble here, come find me.
And I am suddenly more alone
than ever, till my young friend returns,
looks at my anxious face, smiles, says
this is what I wanted to show you.