It Was Black History Month 2019 In February Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

It was Black History month 2019 in February
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I am reading Trevor Noah's book, Born a Crime,
And I find it an interesting narration
It is actually spiritually uplifting to find out that
Love conquered all for it was against the law for a black woman and a white man
Or a white woman and a black man to engage in sexual intercourse
And despite the fact that it is beautiful to feel love that
One is willing to throw caution to the winds
I think it was also foolhardy of these lovers
And in such a political climate of apartheid
The author of the book was born and has survived to tell the tale
And host a show in America;

In Canada, going back to times of apartheid,
PM Brian Mulroney opposed the policy of the South African government
And I have an endeavour titled Canada's Role in the Gandhi-Mandela-Dalai Lama struggle on Linked In
Which might help discuss some aspects of apartheid
That bear a frightening similarity to times in the USA before the Civil Rights Bill was passed
More on the lines of social ostracism and not along the lines of illegal love as in S. Africa;

The political climate in the USA has made it easier for a slightly racist wave
To rear its ugly head
And it saddens all of us here in Canada
And this brings me to Amy Klubacher, a democratic candidate, whose town hall meeting I partially watched
For she said that her goal to make a difference to Americans could be explained this way:
She was dining in a restaurant with family and there was a Somalian couple with 2 little children
And a white man who came up to them, said that they needed to go back home from where they came
And the little girl began to plaintively say, Do we have to go back home
For I so want to have dinner here,
And her message to the American immigrant families is that America should feel like home to all of them;

And I say that in Canada, with a constitution that has a clause for multi culturalism
The landscape is conducive for retaining one's identity while blending into the main culture
But I am afraid that my 20 year old son would object to an unified culture
For he likes the beauty of different cultures and different languages and different countries
Although I think that sometimes we get so lost in our categorisation that we lose focus of the big picture
That we are Canadian.