"I don't mean to offend anyone with this poem."
I’m not my skin
I’m not your expectations,
I’m the soul that lives within,
I’m that which the blind can see
And all that you can’t see.
I’m the little boy confused
By the world’s segregation,
I’m the laugh of their talk,
I’m not trying to be you,
Look at my stiff black hair?
It stands tall like trees in the forest:
It feels so pure and sets me free.
Look at my thoughts, they are diverse
And full of colors.
I’m not my skin
I’m not who you think I am,
I’m the river that flows and blesses
Every oasis with a touch of water.
I’m the man who sees no color.
Touch my tan skin
And you’ll see that I’m human too.
I’m not trying to gain approval from you,
I just want you to know that I’m not my skin.
My culture is scarred by the human traitors,
I owe no forgiveness to any man alive…
Does the way I walk, smile or wear my afro
Make me any less human?
Should I be ashamed of my own skin?
I’m not my hair,
I’m the soul that lives within,
Poverty, disease, loss of human dignity
Are my arch enemies besides man.
Your broken kisses heal my human body,
Your spite for a person of my kind
Cannot break or shake to take me away into any
Sort of mortal shame for the skin that covers my
Bones and muscles.
My heart beats rhythmically like a Zambian drum,
My broad nose inhales the air my ancestors left,
My eyes see the moon, sun and the stars
That my Bantu forefathers
Worshiped and sacrificed lives for…
And this is who I’ll always be.
I’m not my skin,
I’m the simple person you’ll never know,
I’m the culture will never touch,
I’m the proud onyx soul you’ll never kiss.
I’m that little girl on mother’s back
Who she carried whenever
She went begging on the street,
I’m that lost lone needle in the hay.
But you can only see my russet skin..
In me you can only see a slave,
A second class human!
I’ll continue to walk tall like the beautiful
African queen my mother told me I’m.
I’m not my skin,
Like you, I’m not perfect, I react when I don’t mean to.
To kill me, take away my skin
And throw it beyond my children’s reach.
My black skin rages your emotions…
Your lust for another killing of my kind
Fuels every breath you take.
Here’s a knife tear my skin apart?
You’ll see that the blood I hold is scarlet…
Like a human’s or any other animal’s.
When my heart is broken I cry just like you do,
To you good skin means bright and not black.
The sun can’t hurt me I tamed her,
The night’s creatures can’t see me
Because my skin camouflages my soul.
Your bitter words can’t hurt me, I hate them not you.
