Celebrity Fool’s Gold
by Sabrina Dawkins
Fool’s gold replaced my black man
with dookie rope chains,
name brand clothes,
and battering bass.
Poetic, layered Bible verses
replaced
with “stick it in the hole.”
Fool’s gold
made flesh and walking around
smelling like expensive cologne.
Fool’s gold
covered in makeup.
I told Beyonce
it clogs the pores
and lipstick slowly poisons.
But she filed into
the church choir row
wearing a black one-piece
with a bunny tail,
singing her solo.
She is every fan,
sound riding the air
infecting the hosts
with vocal runs.
Now Aretha sings secular music
with a gospel tone.
Fool’s gold.
Malcolm X replaced by Jay-Z,
financed to tell black girls
they are female dogs
and disposable sex objects,
to be a role model
to black boys.
Become a billionaire
selling froth and sin.
Fool’s gold.