Sambo

Illinois
Winter,
I am six
Sitting at
Breakfast in
1952 with sibs
As our Mom reads
To us over pancakes
The story of Little Black
Sambo who was chased up
A palm tree in southern India
By tigers whom the boy tricked
Into running around the trunk until
The tigers melted into butter that
Sambo used for his pancakes.
Though Sambo was written
As a positive view of a boy
Of color it has since been
Disparaged first the word
Sambo as racist and the
1899 illustrations as too
Pickaninny for the poet
Langston Hughes but
We heard Sambo as
A clever little boy
Who enjoyed his
Pancakes like
We did with
Lots of hot
Melted
Butter
And
Hoped
He had
Maple syrup
In India though
The Kate Smith song
Did seem to us a bit too
Condescending as there
Are no tigers in Africa
Nor had we heard of
Pickaninnies even in
Our four years in
Louisiana near
Shreveport
Barksdale
AFB red
Soil
Green
Things
Blue skies
But we were
Kids seeing the
Surface not hate
Or prejudice as our
Parents did not allow
Such stupidity from us.
Whenever I treat myself to
Pancakes I remember my Mon
Reading to us about little Sambo.