look at her pale face she looks half dead
bet you could get off school pretending to be sick any day
yeah she could
and she did
going home on the bus wearing tights in summer
girls with blue souls
born in the wrong continent or era
where pallor was detested even by racists
dark skin purchased by the half hour
slapped on and smoothed over the counter
where she couldn’t make herself sun-kissed for all the tea in china
even if the tea were orange pekoe
where she wasn’t able to change who she was except in the dark
in the dark she was a wolf with sisters
outrunning the easy cloaks of shame
ridicule on the street like they all had the same script
sometimes she’d say something in return but the stinger was already in
tight venom digging up her roots and the foundation she built
she hated her reflection so she smashed all her mirrors
until a soul with her reflection in their eyes told her
they got it wrong
just as the little brown girl was cursed
for they said she was too dark
just as the little black girl was scorned
for they said her nose was too wide
just as the little coffee girl was bullied
to straighten her kinky hair
they got it so wrong the judges of nothing
she’s just like her all sisters
they share her hurt and scars
girls who don’t need to hate others for
fashionable causes and empty cat calls
she will let them ward off the sun
and bursting through
become the center of
a female endowed fuselage
liquid hydrogen
oxygen
woman
in all colors
damning the
countenance of zero
A woman
TheFeatheredSleep 