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Mr. Dua writes The Times:

“My name is Kevin Dua, a 29-year old African-American male that teaches 9th-grade high school history at Somerville High School, in Somerville, MA. This poem was inspired by the 1937 Abel Meeropl’s poem, Strange Fruit (that protested American racism, and lynching of African Americans).

Kevin Dua

A Strange Tree in the President’s Garden is centered on the presidential election of Donald Trump – a person who advocated years of discriminatory and prejudicial allegations (via “birtherism”) towards Barack Obama’s (the 44th U.S. President and the nation’s first African-American President) citizenship based on the premise of his African ancestry. This is reminiscent of factual American historical suspicions towards person of colors’ identity as a certified American due to their ethnicity not resembling that of the majority demographic.

This poem was solely written to value human identity and life, despite the fact that a fellow citizen can succeed the same black man he discriminated against, to become President.”

A STRANGE TREE IN THE PRESIDENT’S GARDEN

It is the southern breeze,
and not over-well eggs,
that stirs him to rise.

His eyes past a gold pane,
resting on the shadow
casts by a strange tree.

Blood on the leaves
clash with the green look,
dying the white’s house’s garden.

His nose cannot bear
the scent of magnolias
mixed with the rotten black fruits.

Here is a strange tree,
with its hung bodies
swaying in the winds,

unmoved by drawn curtains.

— Kevin Dua

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