DEAR OPPORTUNITY, 1945
  
 Unfortunately
 it appears
 there has been
 a bit of bait & switch
  
Kitchen duty (no sir)
 Latrine-mopping (no sir)
 Butter-cutting (no sir)
 Trash-collecting (no sir)
 Uncle Sam advertised
 new skills – FREE education
 snappy uniform with a stipend
 Black & White WACs alike
  
 but (no sir)
 black strike
 arrest - court-martial
 temporary insanity (no sir)
 useless defense
  
 O opportunity
 separate but equal
 is a chokehold
 bound to get checked
  
her foot  her note  her voice  her disobedience  her foot  her note  her voice  her defiance   
           WAC Privates Mary Green  Johnny Murphy  Anna Morrison  Alice Young 
  

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Stacy’s poems, plays, and visual art have been published in Black Arts Quarterly, New American Writing, Foglifter, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. He is a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and recipient of an individual artist grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. He has been a contributing editor of Foglifter literary journal and was formerly on the board of directors of ZYZZYVA literary journal.