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MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE


AMERICA’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL GRILL                                                                                                                       
By Bob McNeil
​


Near the counter,
    One seat away from a guy named Uncle Sam,
    I sat in America’s Unconstitutional Grill,
    Notorious for its discrimination special.
    Recollections took my psyche traveling
    Throughout gripped and whipped generations.     
    I remembered Sam’s culture-ramming family
    Capturing my kin
    And reducing them to abused horses
    In a round pen.
My temper went from a semiautomatic pistol
    To a ballistic missile.  
    Around then
    My anger could have leveled
    America’s Unconstitutional Grill. 
Right before my left was going to punch Sam
    So his teeth would meet a dirt heap           
    ‘Neath some table’s feet,   
    Non-Caucasian children came in.
    They ordered cheeseburgers.
     A spoiled-cream-distasteful waitress,
     Wearing a hairnet,
     Said, “The Grill did not get
    The School Budget Tomato Sauce yet.”
Judging from the way
     Their liveliness took a graveyard turn,  
     Non-Caucasian children did learn
     Unconcern made their meals burn.     
According to other non-Caucasian patrons,
    There was not much pepper
    In the House and Senate stew.  
    Non-Caucasian patrons spat discontent
    Over the cop-frisked pork biscuits 
    Accompanying assorted penal-smelly vittles. 
Seconds from leaving America’s Unconstitutional Grill,
    Despite my refusal to select a speck,
    The waitress tossed me a check. 
    After I tabulated
    Subjugation's cost,
    I told the ashy cashier,
    “Get the damn owners to atone
    And reimburse for every year
    My people spent here.”  
                                       



​

  • HOME ISSUE #3
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY AND PROSE
  • BLACK MUSIC PHOTO ESSAY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • VISUAL ART GALLERY
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • Support Merge Literary Magazine
  • ISSUE #2 CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • FEATURED WRITERS AND ARTISTS
  • MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • Multimedia Art Review
  • PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
  • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • ISSUE #1 POLITICAL AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
    • Mission and Content
    • About US
    • POETRY
    • PROSE
    • ART ILLUSTRATION
    • ESSAYS AND PLAY
    • MULTI-MEDIA QUILT REVIEW
    • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
    • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • Support Merge Literary Magazine