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Michael Ansara spent many years as an activist and an organizer starting with the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, going on to be a regional organizer for SDS. He spent 10 years organizing opposition to the war in Vietnam. He was for 15 years a community organizer including directing Mass Fair Share. He has worked on political campaigns, coordinated voter registration efforts, and trained many organizers. He is the co-founder of Mass Poetry. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Redress Movement and the organizing team for Together We Elect. He is a poet whose work has been published in numerous literary journals and whose first book of poems, What Remains, has recently been published by Kelsay Press.

Race is just a story

Michael Ansara

In the alley or lewd casino
every game its dealer
Every story its teller
                in caves, in cotton fields,
on playing fields, while ploughing fields,
                In ice storms, dust storms,
monsoons, typhoons

fictions:
the shape of your head,
the meaning of your lips,
the curl the color the kink the lank
the sun the cold the light the dark

Race is just a story,

But because of it:
                The shackle, the whip
                The brand, the noose
                The bullet
                Endless songs of mourning rising
                Like soft smoke in the evening sky

Race is just a story.

Every story its teller      
                every salt tear tastes the same.

— Michael Ansara

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