i don't see color

at some point it became pc

(in certain circles, that is)

to say i don’t see color

when it was pointed out

this perspective is

reductionist at best

and bigoted at worst

the phrase shifted teams

donned a new party color

and made its appearance

on the opposing side of

the donkey v. elephant coin.

i don’t see color

means you’re missing out

on the pigments that make

the world kaleidoscopic and

awake. you’re hindered by

rose-tinted glasses when you

don’t see color since everything

adopts the same tone of rosy

façade—an unnatural glow to

make you feel better about yourself.

but what of those who will never

be pink? those who were born a

hue of nightfall where the light

only hits when someone else

turns it on? when the sun lays

whispering in a bed made by a

white man or woman & everything

else falls privy to shadow?

no: i don’t see color is what we

say when we can’t acknowledge

contrast, would prefer the world

white-washed in simple shades

of we’re all the same

i’m just like you

and other lies we tell ourselves

before we fall asleep at night

so insomnia doesn’t wrestle us

so our soul is mollified

just enough to enter the

dream-realm without hating

ourselves come morning.