Hate by: Gina Acampora, Silver Gelatin Print, 2019

Crude

Freshly clipped hair
Flutters to the floorboards,
Scattered and
Yellow
Like scarecrow straws,
Daffodil petals,
And the scatterings of stars
Sewn to the sweaters of civilians,
A word scrawled across them,
Its connotation come to mean
‘Crude.’

Posted to the door outside
What was once
Mr. Applebaum’s general store,
Where within,
He used to sit on his stool,
Selling yarn by the spool:
Yellow–
Brand new–
For money he knew to be
Worth more than he:
The seller and
The Jude.