The “Otherized”

Back then you were different if darker than white

Aware that you have been “otherized”

Racially mixed in a culture “up tight”

Too young to be feeling so “smotherized”

It felt so unsettling that people would stare

Whether walking or riding a bus

It’s the sixties, and yes, most people did glare

Made me wonder, “So what’s wrong with us”

I’d walk with my mother or walk with my dad

Though I hated to walk with them both

It fostered a stigma exceedingly bad

But I’m thankful it ended with growth

Soon I was maturing, ashamed of my shame

My love for my parents, immense

It took time to recover from what I became

This stigma my only offense

Oppressed by a feeling my family’s not right

I banished the shame away, far

I’m no longer stigmatized, shackled, up tight

I’ve accepted my feet where they are