A Brown Lady Asserting Her Right To Take A Seat Poem by RIC BASTASA

and so this brown lady
inside a cafe
asserted her right
to sit where she wants
to

invoking her
constitutional right

a la rosa
sub rosa
parks

a white woman
enters
and tells her
to move a little
bit farther

and the brown woman
says

you don't tell me to move
because you don't own this place

i have the right to be here
i am no less than the trees and the stars

the white woman is 65
the brown woman is 35

and i see,
as you feel the sting,
there is a bite somewhere inside your heart

and now you tell me the story
of this guilt.