Onyx

I used to look in the mirror and despised what I saw.

My skin was something that I wanted to cut from my flesh

and hoped that a myriad of new colors

would emerge from the wounds.

I called myself ugly

because I didn't know my skin was more ancient that the sands

and more beautiful than the stars.

I didn't know I had the same skin as Tenkamin,

The first ruler of Ghana.

I'm proud to know I have the same skin as

President Obama

and I don't know how God made your skin,

but I know he made mine in his honor.

My skin, will never crack under any circumstances

like the spirits of West Africans

when they used to do their tribal dances

I would dance the Yakini and Macru with them

until my pigments bled their rhythm

the road to self-discovery never felt so easy

because I have generations of my people with me.

We, are indeed a rainbow, for our skin has painted

a spectrum of colors across eternity.

My skin speaks to me, in the voices of

Martin, Malcolm, Nate Turner,

Marcucs Garvey and Bob Marley

anad it tells me: "to never fear your blackness

because when darkness covers the sky there

will always be a blanket of light underneath it."

Just like my being!

My body is the sky and I allow my blackness to cover it

and the light underneath it will shine as bright as

Gods covenant.

I didn't know my tone held all this beauty.

And it won't ever die so I won't ever write it a eulogy

God, gave our blackness artistry

as a sign of his almighty divinity.

I keep my black on my back to protect it from societies corruption.

History has tainted our skin by means of its transduction

but we,

continue to tell the stories of our ancestors through our

blackness we,

are the griots who told entire histories with the liftings of our left fists

and with that fist we can reach for the stars

and clutch them with dignity!

People only use the word "Nigger" because they couldn't come up

with a synonym for "beauty"

My swarthy skin makes me worthy

to be the master of my own destiny

and I realized all of this through my coating.

I wear it over my body as my coating,

my pigmentation has never been so attractive to me

so I kiss it goodnight as if it were my own daughter

I call her Ebony.

I have the spirits of africans and black leaders living

vicariously through me

and it doesn't matter how far they threw me,

my skin will never be expunged

and its glory will never falter

I am who I am because of who we all are so...

If I were to ever cut open my Onyx again

I would drink from its history

and forever

be proud

of my own skin.