Coffee Milk Brown

Coffee milk brown!

My homegrown gown

Scars my legs and face

And arms…and race

A color

Too watered down

To call it anything but

Coffee milk brown

I am not biracial,

I am not creole

or mixed.

Birthed to a family

of regular folks

and I’m the hoax!

Yeah, some o’ dem bore some light crowns,

but none as light as my coffee milk brown’s!

I get it from my momma’s side

it just passes that way sometimes

It’s nothing special

a lighter shade of brown

till the world thinks they know better

than I who I am

The things people say

when they think you’re more them

than they

The way people act

when they think you’re less this

and more that

The people who let you down

Just cause you’re coffee milk brown

Color is the most unimportant,

important thing about me.