What are your intentions dear stranger when you
extend me blessing attached to the manger?
If you say, “Bless your heart” I am aware of the danger in
the unsaid, coded “Fuck your feelings” that your Southern politics rearranges there.
And if you say, “God bless you” thrusting judgment into the fray
is this meant for my forced appreciation of your display?
Or is it meant to humble me and crumble my womanly way?
Or overt propaganda in hopes my beliefs you have sway?
If instead you say, “Have a blessed day” or “Bless you” excluding a God or Gods,
am I supposed to feel that I have been spared the rod(s)?
That you have power over me and do not see me as a sod or that
somehow goodness passes over me this day and this is a nod?
Either way, blessings from strangers feel like ways to control and direct
the narrative of keeping white supremacist’s deviants boxed in and correct.
Visual representation of story on @tolbert_on_medium Instagram
