the contemporary black child @ integration

the contemporary black child @
integration


i have learned beside Them.

taught by the same teachers, seated in the same seats. My intellect and understanding of the possible shaped by the same books and smiles of acknowledgment.

But,
Brown and smooth and full of youth.

Eyes stretched wide from astonished discovery,
My face betrays me.
it smiles bright –
teeth wrapped by ample lips, lips primed to reveal the answer to the questions posed, a comment to the topic discussed.

But, lips never fully part, thought never expressed instead only a sigh as my hand, proudly thrust forward is passed by –
on the basis of affirmative action protest.

The teacher chooses a more appropriate hand.

All rights reserved © 2009

@integration

@ integration

Little black girls pray nightly
For transformation
Into Barbie beautiful Pantene and
Flaxen.

Nightly.

Prayers – little caged lights- ascend
And, innocence offends the ears of the creator

In little voices,
“Take back my face, Father and make me over into whitebread wonderful!”

Nightly, little lamb’s heads bough and pray.

“If I can’t die before I wake, let me wake free of this skin. I’ll trade you my gravity defying curls and twigs – for your yielding silk.
Father?
Take back defiance, and bring me a permanent relaxer.
Don’t let my eyes be so dark that those who look on mine can see the depth of their destruction. But, pry loose my eyes – instead.
Give me eyes like the blue of the sky or green grass.”

Little black girls pray nightly for transformation.


All Rights Reserved © 2009