Dark Skin Blues

Black is beautiful

The pigment of my people as explicitly seen 

Glistening on my skin under the glowing sun 

That printed the color deeper into my skin 

The shimmer attesting to my heritage 

Feeding my desire to break free 

To rip me apart from me 

To tear away the evidence of ugliness 

That was splashed all over my skin 

Tainted,dirty and black 

Exaggerated by mother's local simsim bathing oil 

Evidence to yet the ignorance of my people 

 Yesterday,that charming man said to me;

 "You are pretty for a dark-skinned girl" 

I was enthralled..... 

At least,someone paid me a pleasant hateful compliment 

Usually i am just that black girl 

Ugly to the core 

But that light skinned girl, Oh boy! 

The true definition of an African beauty 

Oh! I am African,alright? 

But my skin is a shade darker than hers 

The melanin of my skin is my shadow 

Lurking around me 

Haunting every inch of me 

My color needed healing 

Only I didn't know how 

And God wasn't helping either 

The thing is!! 

My dark-skinned brother was supposedly; 

An Adonis soaked in chocolate fudge 

But I was different.you see? 

Just like my black ancestral gods 

From the people of the not-promised land 

So I got bundled up in hatred 

My face was adorned in smiles 

But I secretly bred contempt 

My heart became envy's nest  

Poisoning me with bitterness 

Bottling me up in self loathing 

Till I flirted with my imperfections 

They drew me closer  

Teaching me to embrace me 

Revealing my beauteous color,culture,people and heritage 

That was hidden under stereotypical buffoonery 

It doesn’t matter what color I am

I am who I am

And I won’t let the clichéd whispers of society

Fade the beauty that overwhelms me

Author's Note

Colorism is one of those foul things that is common among black/African people.....the belief the dark sknned girls are not pretty...Oh,in my culture,sim sim oil is used to bath new born babies...it makes them smoother and they grow up with really soft skin but there is also that belief that it makes skin darker...nevertheless,its a beautiful culture

Reviews

[Érenn]

I can feel the frustration and hatred and to a certain extent the sadness for all the times this discrimination has taken place with not only you but I am sure countless others as well. Very raw, very powerful and very gut wrenching. I cannot even imagine what you go through, or I am lying to myself otherwise. The write is about snapping at these people, but the verses in the end though, are about the acceptance and taking pride for being yourself and loving yourself ^^ Thank you for sharing ^^

[Mary Helda]

Thank you darling,for reading and the great review:-)

[Nigel Newman]

Mary Hi. I'm going to disagree with almost everyone here. Not about your sentiments and wonderful phrases. There are some real gems here - I especially like 'flirted with my imperfections' and also the 'Adonis' line that someone else remarked upon. As regards colorism, well I live in a country where white "christians" bit lumps out of each other for years in Ireland, and I read and see on the news where Shia and Sunni are more or less doing the same thing in the Middle East but on a more devastating scale. I don't understand these conflicts; I don't understand the prejudice, discrimination and favouritism that probably lies behind their causes. So I take your word for it that it happens; it's obviously a bad thing. Sadly I'm forced to disagree with your closing statement that we're all one. I wish we were. If you have a moment, take a look on YouTube for a song by Blue Mink called 'Melting Pot'. The only sense we'll all be one is when a Trump-run US takes on a Putin-led Russia and North Korea in a game of 'who blinks first', after which it'll be sayonara world.

For me, however, I found the poem a bit shapeless. I was looking for structure or flow and found neither. If it's prose, write it as prose, in paragraphs. You may disagree, of course. But I think this sits between two stools of poem and prose - of course these are MY constructs. But I think you might have a richer more impactful end product if you followed either of these routes more tightly. A more structured poem would oblige you to think more about choice of words to fit, and when it was OK to break the rule for extra impact. A piece of prose could be totally free form and you could say what you want for as long as you want.

Regards
Nigel

[Mary Helda]

it was meant to be a prose poem but i think i kind of lost the structure. thank you for pointing that out... i am going to make sure i change it
there is a line missing there,before "we are one" it was originally supposed to be "we are black, we are african, we are one" but i left that out...guess i have to scrap that line out too
thank you so much. your review is always so helpful

[Nigel Newman]

Interesting now to look back on what I said about poem vs prose. As I face exactly this problem with 'Teach him to dance'. The form you see it in here on WC, strong poetic structure, meter, rhyme, etc, in my view dilutes and renders rather trite the impact upon the boy of what happened on the stage (you'd need to read it to see what I mean), but it's a much easier format to work with or to read, in many ways. So I'm going through the same internal debate about possibly making it free form prose.

[Great Aunt Astri]

Oh Mary, how terrible is colorism and what it can do to people. But black is beautiful and darker skinned people in your country are far healthier. One day we will all want to be black!

[Mary Helda]

Thank you so much Aunt:-)

[AliciaB]

Wow. This poem is incredible. First of all, I had no idea that this kind of issue existed. You present an extremely powerful description of colorism and its effects on you throughout this poem. Every metaphorical image and personal story reveals a new element of your emotions and thoughts regarding this challenge that you face. I am impressed by your ability to so honestly convey such profound emotions. Excellent work, and I will be praying for you!

[Mary Helda]

Thank you so much my dear...your words mean a lot to me:-)

[Bear]

Life is a rainbow, every color plays a vital part of the picture it paints and for any one color to think its self superior to any or all the others is self-delusional. The same white and red corpuscles pump through our bodies, the same double helix pattern makes up our DNA. There is a difference between us and I am not referring to the tint of our skin, I am talking about life styles. Some live with hate, ridicule and racism as their belief system and those same qualities they preach. Pity them for they will never know the feeling of peace and love an open and forgiving heart can bring :~)

[Mary Helda]

Thank you so much Bear...I really do appreciate it:-)

[andrew mitchell]

The world is full of prejudices and cruelty whether it be colour or gender preferences, all because people are different. A lovely sad write!

[Mary Helda]

Yes,,,the world is full of prejudice and cruelty.. thank you my friend

[Emily]

I really liked how you started it!
Keep on writing!

[Mary Helda]

Thank you Emily:-)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"an Adonis soaked in chocolate fudge"

wickedly good line...this entire poem is an eye opener or should be...

beauty is in the eye of the beholder...and some just don't behold very well---

whatever shade we are, we are all shades of people inside and out.

and once we can love ourselves...others find it much easier to do the same...and if they don't, that is their loss.

j.

[Mary Helda]

You are definitely right about that.. thank you so much Sir... I really do appreciate it:-)

[mou]

Here you give an excellent message by playing with your amazing words.All credit must be given to the purity of soul.Very beautiful !

[Mary Helda]

Thank you my dear:-)...I really do appreciate your honest and kind words

[mou]

you are welcome, my friend..

[Solar]

'Beauty' is a 'white-wash' industry and your well-written poem speaks out against such 'stereotypical buffonery' in people's responses to skin-colour.

[Mary Helda]

Thank you so much Solar