Category: Columns

By Ernie McCray

What if the slogan,
“Make America Great Again,”
was replaced
with a more hopeful
and promising acronym
such as
“Make America Governable Again”
like the time
when the powers that be
set, although rather unenthusiastically,
its slaves free
or when they laid down highways
allowing motorists
to travel the country
more easily and economically
or gave birth to voting rights
for all of our citizenry.

by Ernie McCray

When I think of one thing
that one thing,
especially if it’s something
that makes me cringe,
leads me to think
of something a bit more promising.
I mean,
for example,
when I think about
climate change,
my mind sets in motion
dreams of gentle rains
or if the thought is about
the armed conflict in Ukraine
I wish war,
like old soldiers,
would just slowly fadeaway

By Ernest McCray

I find myself lately
from time to time
thinking about the good time
I had on stage,
just a wee bit of time ago,
doing some rhymes
of mine
and poetry of a friend of mine
and the work
of poets who rank
among the best of all time,
poems referring to a people
still rising,

by Ernie McCray

Every time I’d look over
at my good brother, Jesus Nieto,
while a rapper
was doing his thing
to funk beats
or while other music played
or while the Kumeyaay elders prayed,
blessing this rather sublime day,
he’d be sitting back in his wheelchair
wearing that soft gentle smile of his
on his contented face

by Ernie McCray

We seem to be a country
that looks at its most pressing
social and political problems
with mystified eyes
and shoulder shrugs
that say
“Oh well.”
Like we dismiss
the nation’s propensity
for mass murders
that break hearts in two
with a prayer or two
and get right back
to whatever it is we do.

by Ernie McCray

Sha’Carri Richardson.
I just love that young woman.
Watching her win the hundred
in a World Track Championship
puts a smile on my face
like the one she planted there
when I first saw her race,

by Ernie McCray

I look at a picture of me at a mic
and my son, Guy,
playing the guitar at my right
and I think,
“Man, I’ve had a great life”
because that moment, in the photo,
captured me having the time of my life,
giving a graduation speech,
via a song,
to people I dearly loved
as sure as I was born,
students at Muir,
a K-12 alternative school,

by Ernie McCray

I see the movie industry
as a huge answer to
the way our society
defines Black people
so negatively
because Hollywood is a master
when it comes to painting an image
of a people,
as I remember growing up
watching many a movie
that made the world seem

by Ernie McCray

There’s an unsound
idea going around
that slavery
benefited those held in bondage
by giving them the opportunity
to learn trades
like blacksmithing
and carpentry
and whatnot.
And in some places
there are intentions to teach this sham
about slavery being a “Job Skills Program”

by Ernie McCray

Tony Bennett,
a singer for the ages,
is gone
but not the memories
of what he,
with a delivery
that encompassed
an incomparable
style of grace and ease,
could do with a song,
making standards,
old show tunes,
his own,
in ways that made you hum
and sing a song

by Ernie McCray

Hey,
Maria Ester Nieto.
I was just thinking
how many years ago
we used to refer to our girlfriends
as our “old lady,”
with no thought
that a day might come
when your squeeze is just that,”
an old lady,
a beauty like you
turning eighty,
rocking it,

by Ernie McCray

I had the honor of hanging out with some kids
at the Youth Peace Camp
at the
San Diego First Church of The Brethren,
and I enjoyed every single second I spent
with those beautiful people,
leaving them at the end of the evening,
with a glowing smile on my face
which I maintained
listening to some soulful
old school rhythm and blues
as I kick-backed