The Whitening

Starting especially in the early
20th century, folks of all races,
nationalities, and ethnic
backgrounds found themselves
turning into pale imitations of
their former selves, turning
pinker, more basic, less
well done. Even the white people
turned yet whiter, pale as ghosts
to think of what they'd wrought.
The whitening continued
well into the 21st century,
at which point folks began to
whiten every last bit of their
appearances, even their inside
appearances. White, white, white.
No more tolerance for grays, or,
God forbid, black AND white together--
in truth, no one in history ever
really did want to embrace such
painful disparity as the poles.
Then one day, they started in
on their teeth. Off-white and
yellow just wouldn't do any longer.
And on that day occurred
an All Souls' Day like never before.
All souls, past and present,
rose up and screamed,
"No more gray areas, huh?
No more colors? No more natural
teeth even to eat with?
Fine, then, see what it's like living
with no more souls!"

(2006)