Blacking out Racism in Poetry

Blackout Poetry

This short blackout poem explores racism, identity, and belonging through the memory of a racial insult encountered at a school gate. The blacked-out words become part of the poem itself, leaving gaps where language has been censored, suppressed, or made too painful to repeat.

I am . I thought I was

chestnut brown until one day

ambling late

through the school gates

this 6ft , 25 year old,

screwed up his pale face

and spewed,

“You black .

You dirty –

Why don’t you go back home?”

I froze. Born in the backyard

of his Black Country

I thought I was already home.

I don’t forget that .