‘Introduction to Composition’ by Caitlin Thomson

Everyone in the class has a face the colour of paper, or the colour
of newly poured cement, or the colour of stainless steel.

They could conceivably be on the same paint swatch.
All twenty are discussing The New Yorker, the magazine

named after a city not one of them has visited.
My father said this is a left-wing magazine, Miss.

The reporter is clearly biased. I mean do they interview
one white person in this article?

I know the lawyer is white, but he doesn’t count. Bleeding
heart. My face is the colour of cherry petal, flushed

and blushing. Online that morning, friends
shared and destroyed a poem published in that same

magazine, filled with racial stereotypes that belonged
in a dated sitcom, if they had to be placed anywhere.

I ask questions that lead towards fact checkers, to information
they can verify, to sources they consider right,

slowly the class coalesces into agreement, understanding
almost. In my reviews, one student writes

Prof. Thomson is nice, but a little naive, she still believes
racism exists in this country. My boss laughs.

From issue #5: autumn/winter 2017

About the Author
Caitlin Thomson has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including: Eleven, Eleven, The Adroit Journal, and Till The Tides. Her work has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her third collection of poetry, Territory Prayer, was published by Maverick Duck Press.