- Soap is a Clean Addiction
it is important to write about race how it changes according to venue is therefore fuel for obsession
it is with pride or fear i admit to watching soap operas for years an addiction like candy or difficult men
it is important the two are related that my favorite shows mess with me
back in the day when faithful ivory viewers wrote to networks in protest of interracial love
we knew all of us in cleveland that Dottie of warm voice and heavy bottom was one of us
we knew as soon as Delilah boogied outta new orleans you were considering revealing her coloredness
you never did
married to a toupeed tycoon you left her floating tween father and son [End Page 526]
we found her dancing in striped danskin to “Maniac” from the movie Flashdance in weird homage to mixed beauty you refuse to give families to
we found Dottie in “83” when Alabama called to tell us “Guess what, you’ve got your first Black Miss America” we heard Dottie’s voice again on the Tonight Show
Vanessa sounded just like her we were right
did you think it cute to drop us in towns where hunters mistake sepia for deer?
as sure as Latino tough guys are played by Italians (and sometimes vice versa) we become orphans in Llanview or Pine Valley the places to go if one wants to adopt
Maria is a Spanish French African whose sister is played by a straight up Caucasian
her mariachi singing parents gave birth to a 5’11” nubian who has to practice saying paella . . . paella
the sister is ripe to fall in love with the o.j. simpson look-alike’s dreadlocks and hard speech “i don’t be got no . . .” straight from e. hampton the actor forgets calls her “Miss Anne Lily White” tho the rest of the family is clearly mestizo mulatto
Agnes Nixon i know i got racial problems but who you think you fuckin with? [End Page 527] we are the ones who buy Ajax Palmolive the Raid the Air Freshener
nobody calls us dirty
soap is a clean addiction sort of like herbal tea once in awhile somebody does the nasty and the tube heats up
we’ve saved enough dregs of suds to buy some african romance
how about Taylor and Noah on location to the Motherland a thriller in Accra Port Charles Llanview Pine Valley welcomes them back with a jam a blue light throw down to the early light on Locust St.
see we got more money than the average junkie to boycott you
all anybody has to do is say the word
history begins
Janice Lowe teaches creative writing workshops in libraries and schools throughout New York City. Her poems have appeared in In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers and Callaloo, in which she has made her third appearance. She is not only a poet but also a playwright and a composer of music.