when asked why I don't volunteer

Matthew E. Henry, Issue 07

because every professional development 
has become an exercise in emotional sharecropping—
unpaid labor, shackled in the red-faced sun
of small groups, whipped to explain everything 
they’ll forget when cut off in traffic, confined 
in an elevator, or too close on a sidewalk. 
or worse: auction-blocked, forced to open my mouth, 
show my teeth for all the assembled 
after speaking simple, uncomfortable truths 
in a breakout session full of buzzwords 
like “equity,” “inclusion,” and “antiracism.” 
because “diversity” means “we’ve allowed you 
to sit at our table, break our bread, become one of us—

almost,” and I’d rather pick cotton than explain, 
once again, that power is the number of times 
you can tell your story 
uninterrupted, 
only to be ignored for the next few semesters, 
centuries, or until another noose is found
in the bathroom stalls.