That White Man Burden

It was always a myth,
But for a while it served
The purposes of people in power,

The people with the most power,
And any myth that serves
The people most in power

Tends to stick around for a while.
Now no one seems able to let go,
Slough off their white male burden,

Not those who still wish it stood
For a heroic story of them,
Not those for whom it’s a yoke

On their necks that’s still choking them.
It will lift, eventually,
Since the people in power change,

And the white male will be revealed
As a passing historical
Fiction, romantic to a few

Like those you can still find in fields
Pretending to believe in Zeus
Or something else they read about

That sounded cool and frightening
That holds no awesome power now
Over myth-makers’ descendants.