Light bright
her daddy’s brother was black like coal like Michelin tires, like tar on blacktops, his skin draped like midnight, slick like motor oil dripping hot every night she’d sleep over with her cousin he’d creep onto her cot, breathing in her ear, called her babygirl and honey and dear she never told anyone just buried it deep in her heart, promised one day she’d run so far from black that she’d never go back she found and married a man as white as snow with skin like porcelain like purity like angel wings, like vanilla ice cream just so her kids would be light-bright too with no need for afro sheen with skinny braids too thin to house clickclack beads, Blue Magic hair grease banned from her bathroom cabinets, she promised she’d run so far from black that she’d never have to go back, naming her children Sarah and Dylan and Meghan and Jack, she ignored the ache to bake cornbread with cracklin’s ignored the itch in her hands to stand at the kitchen counter cutting collard greens she secretly hopes her children will also seek white like she did, hopes they’ll also have light bright children who one day won’t need hair grease, who one day won’t want chicken fried crisp in Crisco she hopes to wash the black away, someday. hopes to wash the black away, someday. (C) 2017 Crystal Senter-Brown |
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