Color: Me

Color: Me

I’m white
--skin the color of a fine piece of parchment.
The world tells me, orders me, to hate that
To hate myself.

All of the crimes of the past:
A skin color?
Nobody ever committed a gross injustice--
Unless they were white.

White. Caucasian. Trash?

I don’t believe it,
That I’m worthless because of my flesh.
Hate me for my mind,
Disregard me for the words that come out of my mouth,
Loathe me for the things I do--
But never judge me by my skin.

I am not a portrait of the past.
I am the present, the future, the inside--
Me.