There’s been a lot of white noise lately

buzzing around
in the echo chambers of my irritation canal
with all the charm of rattling cicadas
or hissing rattlesnakes.

If you listen carefully
you can detect a certain hollowness—
a certain
discordancy

in the reverberations of self-righteous outrage
or competitive ALLYSHIP
(you’d think it was a professional sport!)
making the rounds
boasting blubbering bellowing

“I’m not racist!”

who knew shame could make such a racket?

white-handed in guilt
foot in-mouth
tongue-in-cheek:

down for the cause
ready to help
preach
virtue signal
pander
with an ignorance that preceded ignorance
and further begets ignorance.

Yes, there really has been a lot of white noise lately.

When basic human decency becomes laudable,
forgive me for not having enough gold stars to pass around.

Robyn Chiara Fohouo (she/her/hers) is a student at Columbia University and began writing poetry in the turbulent summer of 2020, taking great comfort in attending virtual poetry workshops hosted and attended by incredibly welcoming writers. She writes to understand and make something of herself. If not for poetry, she knows not where her emotions would lie. Robyn has been published in Brown Sugar Literary Magazine.