Brown-Eyed Girl

Upon asking someone their favourite colour,

they might comment

on rich hearty greens,

or sky-spackled blues;

sticky pinks,

or lustful passionate reds.

But not once,

have I heard them respond with,

“Brown.

Brown is a beautiful colour.”

Brown is not that simple.

When the pretty colours blend on the palette,

Brown is the ugly result.

Discarded, forgotten, and unwanted.

Which is often exactly

how it feels to have Brown

be the colour people see when they glance

at you.

Brown is embedded into my physical appearance,

since the day I was born, my soft Brown

hair already a thick mop on my head.

My mom used to sing Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl to me,

cooing me to sleep with

words of me being her little Brown-eyed girl.

I was told that having a splash of Brown

in my skin

made me unique and identifiable; that Brown

was gorgeous on people like Beyonce.

As I grew, I discovered that some

had other ideas about the Brown..

Brown was dull. If you had Brown eyes,

they were boring compared to eyes

that were crystal blue or jade green.

If you had dark Brown hair, highlights were recommended

to make it prettier.

If you had Brown skin,

it became your label.

I noticed comments:

“That girl looks surprisingly good today, for a Brown girl.”

or

“You’re my favourite Brown girl, I don’t usually like them.”

Once, I was told,

“You’re not as pretty as that other girl, because you’re not white.”

Nevermind that I was born in Canada,

that my mother was also born in Canada.

My Brown skin made me a foreign object.

Never an ideal beauty,

always an ‘exotic’ one.

I grew accustomed

to different treatment by

my own friends,

because my skin trades shades of cream

for darker hues.

To me, Brown has always meant

warmth and comfort; Brown is home.

It is the colour of the firewood

that people gravitate towards,

chilled hands reaching out

as though greeting a friend.

It is the colour of chocolate cupcakes,

and tree bark.

It is found in the crunchy autumn leaves and

the earthy soil that holds the world together.

To me, Brown is no less of a beautiful colour

than those shades of green, blue,

pink, red.

To me, Brown is the most underrated,

overlooked

colour of all,

and it is a colour I am proud to be.