tan: a blessing

tan is the benediction of sunshine on flesh

a gold that burnishes through the seasons

bursting onto midsummer with seashore laugh

then gilds alongside the changing leaves

though the winter may dust it bronze

no amount of darkness can steal its shine

and when the flowers grow again

surely it shall glow again

tan is also my name—the hue of inheritance

the sweat of farmers in the old kampongs

heat-beaten but never defeated

tan is the skin that we call legacy

the courage of the ancestors

who have touched fire but never burned

tan is what they have given and what i will carry

now they have tried to take tan from us

have muted our glory in a monochrome world

tan, some tell me, is only another word for beige

but i see them lying on the sand

wishing the sun could anoint their flesh gold

deny our beauty but skin it for their own

they will make us in their own image

call us exotic then lock up the cage

but tan sings resistance—we will not let you name us

we will name ourselves

we are the color of wildness and nuance

of a world big enough where we all belong

we bear the kisses of heavenly light

we can never be burned

and tan sings resurrection—

and when the flowers grow again

surely we shall glow again