The Vaccine for Racism

 Hello and Happy National Poetry Month!

Last month I read a wonderful middle grade novel NEW FROM HERE by Kelly Yang. It's about a family living in Hong Kong at the start of the pandemic. I didn't think I'd ever want to ready any story set during the pandemic, but this one is unique...and also based on the author's real life experience. 

Quote from the book: "The vaccine for racism is love."

I LOVE that! Don't you? 

With that in mind, here's a (skinny) poem to celebrate National Poetry Month from DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD: Poems, Quotes, & Anecdotes by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illus. by Mehrdokht Amini (Carolrhoda/Lerner Publishing). Thanks so much for reading!

Love

Love in the time of racism

requires

cardinal's

red

courage

requires

bluebird

carrying

sky

requires

love—no time for racism.

- Irene Latham

--

Irene Latham is a grateful creator of many novels, poetry collections, and picture books, including the coauthored Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, which earned a Charlotte Huck Honor, and The Cat Man of Aleppo, which won a Caldecott Honor. Irene lives on a lake in rural Alabama.