Explorations

By Kristine Dade October 26, 2021

I Want My Baby to be Black

I want my baby to be Black.

As Black as the shadows in underground parking lots

So she will not be stolen,

So she will not be mistaken for belonging to a man

With a bat cape.

She will be as dark as nothingness.

Baby’s first word will be vroom,

On all 4s on the pavement,

Saying beep next.

Through my window, though, others move like rocks

Skipping over streaking red seas.

They won’t crash staying so still.

I’ll board baby when I’m bored,

And when she’s looking down.

We’ll have play dates until she puts the E down.

She’s funny with her board games.

We “get the rhythm” of her headlights to find a bite.

She’s chugging her fuel to the

“rhythm of the hotdog” being

Chewed by an open

Slobbery mouth.

Saying the cost when they have not yet swallowed,

Saying her name with food in their teeth.

Mercedes gets offended as I do, and

My baby shows it cause when we leave,

The ground is smoking,

And she,

Screeching.

The photograph by Clément Delacre is from upsplash.com.

About the author

Kristine Dade is a graduate of ALC: Cinema-Communication and a writer of poetry and short stories.

Comments

JordanLobasso

January 23, 2022

When I read I want my baby to be black I thought that it was going to be something about an actual black baby, but after reading I realized that the article was talking about a black car instead, it really caught my attention with the title alone, it has funny and symbolic quotes like “she’s chugging her fuel to the “rhythm of the hotdog” being chewed by an open slobbery mouth.” Which says a lot about expensive and fast cars, in which they chew up at a lot of fuel since people want to drive those cars and people who have lots of income usually drive them all day every day. The reason why the driver wants the car to be black is that it can be hidden people who will try and steal it at night. That is why I like this story it shows what the real world is about in just a few words.

Yejun Sim

January 25, 2022

The first time I read the title of this piece I thought it would talk about a story of a person who’s doubting his/her partner for cheating and questioning whether the person is his/her child’s biological parent. Yet, as I was reading the piece I realized that it was talking about a black car. It was the part where it says
“I want my baby to be Black.
As Black as the shadows in underground parking lots. So she will not be stolen, So she will not be mistaken for belonging to a man”.
This had made me realize that the “baby” was representing a car and the writer wants the car to be black. Often when we have something that we truly desire we tend to imagine how nice it will be and how will it fulfill our cravings. Even though I wasn’t interested in having a car, the writer has fully conveyed the excitement and joy of having a “Baby”. By the time I finished reading this piece it made me want to have a car for myself as well, which is why I love this piece.

Dev

January 28, 2022

“Always start an essay with a sentence that will get the readers attention” (Every teacher ever, millions of times). There is no need for a first sentence to grasp the readers interest, when the title itself already has the reader at peak curiosity. For the most part, the prolonged metaphor of comparing a car to a baby are easily understood, but one sentence that took a bit of thinking was the following “Through my window, though, others move like rocks. Skipping over streaking red seas. They won’t crash staying so still.” (Dade, 10). At first one may think the sea refers to the street, as cars can be seen as boats travelling over the paved ocean; but once the adjectives of streaking and red are taken into account, the reader comes to the realization that the streaking Red Sea is in reality how the driver sees red lights as they pass him by in a streaking fashion. This Red Sea is sometimes blocked by other drivers as they skip over them, from the drivers perspective, when they drive between him and the red light. Aside from the title, and the metaphor pertaining to red lights, another line that brought interest, but this time in the form of confusion was “So she will not be mistaken for belonging to a man. With a bat cape.“ (Dade, line 4). This line is confusing as the batmobile is black, so for this car not to be confused with the batmobile wouldn’t it be preferable if it had a different colour?

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JordanLobasso
January 23, 2022

When I read I want my baby to be black I thought that it was going to be something about an actual black baby, but after reading I realized that the article was talking about a black car instead, it really caught my attention with the title alone, it has funny and symbolic quotes like “she’s chugging her fuel to the “rhythm of the hotdog” being chewed by an open slobbery mouth.” Which says a lot about expensive and fast cars, in which they chew up at a lot of fuel since people want to drive those cars and people who have lots of income usually drive them all day every day. The reason why the driver wants the car to be black is that it can be hidden people who will try and steal it at night. That is why I like this story it shows what the real world is about in just a few words.

Yejun Sim
January 25, 2022

The first time I read the title of this piece I thought it would talk about a story of a person who’s doubting his/her partner for cheating and questioning whether the person is his/her child’s biological parent. Yet, as I was reading the piece I realized that it was talking about a black car. It was the part where it says
“I want my baby to be Black.
As Black as the shadows in underground parking lots. So she will not be stolen, So she will not be mistaken for belonging to a man”.
This had made me realize that the “baby” was representing a car and the writer wants the car to be black. Often when we have something that we truly desire we tend to imagine how nice it will be and how will it fulfill our cravings. Even though I wasn’t interested in having a car, the writer has fully conveyed the excitement and joy of having a “Baby”. By the time I finished reading this piece it made me want to have a car for myself as well, which is why I love this piece.

Dev
January 28, 2022

“Always start an essay with a sentence that will get the readers attention” (Every teacher ever, millions of times). There is no need for a first sentence to grasp the readers interest, when the title itself already has the reader at peak curiosity. For the most part, the prolonged metaphor of comparing a car to a baby are easily understood, but one sentence that took a bit of thinking was the following “Through my window, though, others move like rocks. Skipping over streaking red seas. They won’t crash staying so still.” (Dade, 10). At first one may think the sea refers to the street, as cars can be seen as boats travelling over the paved ocean; but once the adjectives of streaking and red are taken into account, the reader comes to the realization that the streaking Red Sea is in reality how the driver sees red lights as they pass him by in a streaking fashion. This Red Sea is sometimes blocked by other drivers as they skip over them, from the drivers perspective, when they drive between him and the red light. Aside from the title, and the metaphor pertaining to red lights, another line that brought interest, but this time in the form of confusion was “So she will not be mistaken for belonging to a man. With a bat cape.“ (Dade, line 4). This line is confusing as the batmobile is black, so for this car not to be confused with the batmobile wouldn’t it be preferable if it had a different colour?

I Want My Baby to be Black

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Comments

JordanLobasso

Yejun Sim

Dev