Repost: Zadie

There's the white call'd alabaster. 

There's the white of bleachéd bones.
There's the white of cuffs and collars 

clothing Calvin Carson-Jones.
There's the white on cliffs at Dover. 

There's the whites of plovers' eggs.
There's the white of coward's feathers 

as that cad forgiveness begs.
There's the predatory great white. 

(Aren't white herons great as well...?)
There are white piano iv'ries. 

Jack White knows no parallel.
Seen on airplane flights...? White knuckles. 

Heard in proxy fights...? White lies.
And on Broadway, cows named Milky White. 

(In Sondheim's play, one dies.*)
I have childhood friends who're non-white. 

Off-off-white's a fashion shade.
Pearl White's both a color and an actress. 

(One was bound to fade.)
There's the White Queen -- friend to Alice. 

White rice...? On the whole, it's white.
Snow White lived with seven dwarves. 

White trash fertilizes blight.
There's the ultrawhite of salesmen's smiles. 

Vanilla white's for cones,
while white wine is not. (How far we've got 

from cliffs and bleachéd bones!)
Cafe singers croon "White Xmas." 

Are not you and I both white...?
Sure, but Zadie Smith, I note forthwith, 

is black -- and outta sight!

     * Into the Woods