Color?

Color?

How can you say you don’t see my color

my experience defined by a portrayal

of me based on that & you

have the privilege not to notice

The divide – not enough to hide

Behind your kind smile

Educate yourself to a history

of violence perpetrated against

color for your benefit unbeknownst to you

denounced & minimized to justify

the juxtaposition of power privilege

and the color by which you identify

how dare you deny my life experience

by self righteously declaring

you refuse to see color

denying the importance and pain of existence

of a systemic classification by color called race

dehumanizing the one we are all apart of

Richly rewarded with privileges afforded

For the indignity of the unmentioned

Shame fear loathing what color are those

emotions flowing over

what color is love with joy in abundance

My true color makes me an

other in a world of white

the absence of color

What might become of all the colors together

If we allow our differences to sparkle

If our histories are no longer mysterious

But painted on the canvas of our collective experience