Swimmer with a hard R” by Allen White

After a swim meet In the 9th grade,
I googled:
“What to do if a white boy calls me
The N-word, with a concrete-hard R?”

I was suffocating for an answer
After the word dived off a pale tongue
And swam in ears too nervous to breathe

I prayed to a pixelated idol for answers
The type of answers I wish I had as
My mind and body were caught in a
Tug-of-war between “hit him” and “run”

But apparently, there is no
BuzzFeed headlined titled:
“10 things you should do
if a person who can
Bench more than you weigh
calls you a word heavier than
the both of you combined”

In 9th grade, I learned that
Both Fear and Power end in hard R’s.
And 2 years later, they still stand.
Taller and paler than they were before