White Lies
Natasha Tretheway (b. 1966)
The lies I could tell,
when I was growing up’
light-bright’ near white,
high-yellow, red-boned,
in a black place,
were just white lies.
I could easily tell the white folks
that we lived up town,
not in the pink and green
shanty-fied shotgun section
along the tracks. I could act
like my homemade dresses
came straight out the window
of Mason Blanche. I could even
keep quiet, quiet as kept,
like the time a white girl said
(squeezing my hand), now
we have three of us in the class.
But I paid for it everytime
mama found out.
She put her hands on me
then washed out my mouth
with ivory soap. This
is to purify, she said
and cleanse your lying tongue.
Believing her I swallowed suds
thinking they’d work
from the inside out.
Biography of Natasha Tretheway
Natasha Tretheway was born in Mississippi in 1966, at a time where racism was a big issue. Her parents being in an interracial marriage was considered a violation in that state at the time. Her
Mother was colored and her father was Canadian, which maybe contributed to her light complexion.
In her poem she expresses the possibility of concealing her nationality and the consequences of her actions if her mother found out. She states in her poem and in her life the effects of
racial society and how she dealt with her true citizenship in America.