skin.

my melanin drenched skin

has basked in the light of a thousand suns.

ancestral gold drips from my crown,

to my fingertips,

to my feet.

flickering warm undertones dance within its surface,

celebrating the colors of my origin.

its brown specks are the constellations

connecting the memoirs of my lineage

to the lines of fate within my hands.

a blanket of silk and caramel,

my skin caresses the valleys of scars

put upon me to heal.

bronzed with facets of strength,

it reflects the edges and slopes of a path

carved out by those before me.

it transcends the tragedies of history,

and like trees in the soil,

it grows stronger with the wind.

- nessé