And The Light Dims
Little girls are light
The moment we know
Our wombs house them
They become our glow
We wrap them
in pink blankets
brown skin
radiating love
And soon
When the words come
So do the questions
Can I have this doll
The one with the yellow hair
And blue eyes
She's beautiful
Can I be beautiful
Can my pony tail hang down my back
Why can't I have hair like her
And the light dims
And soon
When the understanding comes
the self hate flutters in
Like a colonial moth
On wings of oppression
At school there are no books with me
With my skin
My nose
My hair
I'm not pretty
And the light dims
And soon
womanhood
Dances around their youth
Hand outstretched
Inviting them to sway
Dancing to melodies
That sound like independence
The anger comes
He accused me of cheating
Me
I've never had an average under a 98
He accused me
In front of the class
The entire class
He says he only dates
White girls
Light girls
They asked if my hair is real
If they could touch it
They did
I didn't say they could
They called me ghetto
They called me nigger
Why did that man just call my mother
Girl
And the light dims
And we mothers weep
into our pillows
In the Shower
In the car
Tears we know they will shed too
Because the world hasn't changed
Behind our desks
Solitary and alone
The only woman
The only brown
The only other
And we are asked to
Educate
Explain
Be the voice of our people
Why do you people
Say
Do
Act
Can you explain rap
What's a chitterling
Work place Mammies
Wet nurses
breasts filled
With black trauma
Suckling ignorance
Promotions passing us by
Like tides that never reach our shores
And our supposed 70 cents on the dollar
Is undoubtedly less
In our black checks
But we can't prove it
And our light Dims
we balance our love
On titanium backs
With feet cemented in
"This won't be my daughter's life"
We turn ourselves
Inside out
No sacrifice too great
To help them spread wings
Not weighed down by their blackness
But fueled by it
But their feet sometimes are tethered to
An earth filled with welfare queen lies
Because brown girls can't fly
too high
Can't soar above
Yellow hair
If they do
They might swing from an imaginary
Noose
Too short for their 6 foot body
And die for not signaling a lane change
when you say
All lives matter
I ask
Will your daughter be sexualized
Before she bleeds
Will her brilliance always be doubted
Will she always be marginalized
Race and sex intersecting like knife in flesh
Will your 5 year old
Whisper in your ear
While wrapped in your loving arms
"Raquel says I'm too dark to be pretty"
Will your daughter hate her own skin
Mine have
Black girls matter too
art by Sage Smith