Neighborhood Nanny

Darkness

Black nothingness

With rainbow speckles

Dots? Pixels? Lights? Glitter? Sparkles?

What is it that I see when my eyes are closed?

Slowly as my eyelids open, a white sliver golden streaked

Light fills my sight, here we are in the present

Inhale, exhale heart beats as I feed this child with a fork and knife in my hands carving her tough meat

In small chunks small enough for her to eat

I stand there with her sweet pup licking my feet

Portion her plate, mashed ‘tatos adjacent to the poultry

Is it just me? Or is it slightly cold goosebumps begin to flutter up my arms

“Here honey, it’s time to eat.” I say as I turn to now make my plate

Licking my lips I begin to think about how truly, beautifully-present and humble of me to spend time with a child who’s not mine and actually enjoy the company

Of someone innocent, untainted by society

I see the color white surrounding me

Pure and new, fresh to the world’s view I sit on her level at a little plastic table

Breaking bread with a toddler, what could be going on in her head? I always wondered

“I just love the color of your skin!” She remarked

I softly grinned

“Why thankyou! The color of yours is also beautiful!”

She quickly grabbed the box of Crayolas

The rainbow pack as she described it

Scanning the color contents picked out with her tiny pointer a color that “quite perfectly” matched me

I love the sight of a child’s eyes

the perspective is one like no other

I wonder if we all adjusted our lenses we’d see the world identically and just love and lean on each other.

No matter the shade or tint or color

You and me are equal,

sisters

And brothers