[Newspoetry] Crayola crayons

[Kathleen McDowell]

Can you remember when you were
five
and crayons were one of your daily tools,
as important as a toothbrush
or your shoes
?

(names change, colors stay the same)

Flesh color, you remember, meant the color
of some flesh.  Not all flesh
but Crayola called it "flesh."  At four or five
we labor through an order-making impulse:
having mastered language, we're acquiring structures 
so that what adults say
is right
and what's printed on your crayons
is a piece of God.

("Flesh" became "peach" in 1962.)

It's 1999, and Crayola has decided   
to change the name of one more crayon:
"Indian Red" to ?  whatever you think of
it's a contest, open to the public,
and now we can all take part in wiping out racism
in crayons.

(This is a true story:  Last week, at the library where I work, a woman
came up to me and excitedly asked for books on "Red Indians."  I
cautiously directed her to the section which I first called "American
Indians" and then called "Native Americans."  She didn't check any of the
books out.)

--newspoem by Kate