Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Sam Harty Sep 2024
I will never know what
it feels like to be
a proud black woman.
   >>>BUT<<<
I will never
pretend like I do.
I have lived
62 years
In this country
and I have seen
Racism,
******,
And
Genocide
And it breaks
my heart and makes me
feel sick inside.

I will never know what
it feels like to be
a proud black woman.
who's turned down for a job
because of the color
of their skin.
But there are roughly
1.3 billion people
in the world who do.
I can see there's
something wrong
with that, can you?

I will never know what
It feels like to be
a proud black woman.
accused of breaking the law
just for Walking
down the street at night
Or have everything
in my life
be a constant struggle
and fight.

No, I will never know.
But I'll tell you
Right here and now,
I will never let the
color of someone's skin
Lead me to prejudge
what they are like
---->within<-----
Sahian Lascurain Sep 2024
Mom was the color of white sand
You were the color of the earth
When it came to my skin
I was reflection of her
But when I wrinkled my face
A smile or a frown
I was a mirror image of you
As time went on I noticed
How differently you were treated
I never understood why
Until I grew up and realized
You were unable to do what the rest of us did
Camouflage
It broke my heart in two
As I grew I made a decision
To become radiant enough
To blind those who
Would look upon you with distaste
And so I began
Turning my clenched fists into polite words
Turning my angry tears into charming smiles
Turning your broken words into poetry
I planted a seed of doubt
Made them question what they saw
And what can't be explained
Fades into the background
And it was in this way way
That I protected you
Like you always have me
But no matter how much time passed
When we are alone
In the fortress of our home
Your scars still make my blood boil
The words they used against you
The ones you so casually brush off
Make me see red
And through your face which is so much like mine
I am reminded time and time again
That when I bleed, it's brown
MetaVerse Jul 2024
Because of its whiteness
The White House is fattist
And racist and sexist
And thissist and thattist
     And agist and apist
     And probly a ******.


Believe, obey, fight-
Tow the party line!
It's a quick battle,
One waged against your own interest;
It's a sad case,
To watch men spit in their own face.
It's family, God, & country
And no room for the self.
Don't you care about your race?
How will you protect it?
What about your religion?
Enshrine it, defend it, spread it?
Of your state-
Bolster, boast, expansion?
Your God?
Your country?
Your family?
Kriti Gupta Jan 2024
My keyboard remembers your name better than I remember the pain
I lie awake at night fearing no one will ever know my veins
There’s still a part of me that’s disappointed you never changed
And I keep telling myself, in another life..?
Maybe that time, I’ll come out with the right skin type
But this was it, there is no another universe
No matter how much I try to kid myself
This is all we had, all I could give you
And it wasn’t enough
I didn’t want to beg, but I did
I know you felt it, I came to my knees,
Longing, aching
Please, please, love my ***** skin.
i only think about you in the hours where I never had you
Francie Lynch Jan 2024
The good ole days were enjoyed with ease,
There was less to enjoy because of disease;
There were fewer people to dress and feed
Thanks to childhood mortality.


The middle-class were few and greedy,
Thanks to needs and poverty;
We could find work and be employed,
But tenure turned to workplace injury.

Illiteracy was common,
Innumeracy, our fate,
Due to the high school drop out rate.

Polio and smallpox kept in check
The burgeoning growth of the unelect.

Minorities knew their social place;
Jim Crow was voting in black face.

Heteros ruled the ****** race,
Alphabet people were an outlier trace.

In summer and winter we were outplayed and beat,
With no Air Conditioning nor Central Heat.

Let's leave the past in the past,
Where history belongs;
Where hunger and sickness
Lasted all life-long,
And the poor and ignorant
Were subdued by the strong.

We can agree times were simpler then,
As time came rushing to an end.
Alphabet people are LGBTQA+
Zywa Nov 2023
God must be sky blue,

then there will be no problems --


will be white nor black.
Novel "Midnight's Children" (1981, Salman Rushdie), chapter 1-7 "Methwold"

Collection "Low gear [2]"
Robert Ippaso Nov 2023
Why this never ending hate
Where impressionable young men swallow jaundiced bait,
To **** and maim - all in the name of their one prophet,
Unleashing burning mayhem with rocket after rocket.

Has discourse and humanity disintegrated to this point,
Where the only leaders they invariably anoint
Preach such hatred and revenge,
With glaring eyes and fingers tightly clenched.

Generations go to die leaving mother's sadly wailing,
The guns they hold no longer just for playing,
A dream of glory as yet another blessed martyr,
The sad byproduct of this never-ending intifada.

Were only calmer minds at play,
Leaders who knew the words they had to say,
To avert such bloodshed that's never a solution,
The only outcome despair and persecution.

Violence is a twin, a spawn of the same seed,
Destruction not discourse it's destiny to lead,
Strength is shown by character, tenacity and grit,
Mandela proved the adage to never ever quit.

Jews and Palestinians cousins by another name
So very different and yet so very much the same,
Two thousands years of sharing this small land,
A differing religion but surely the same band.

Enough this constant slaughter tearing families apart,
Let wiser minds prevail in making a new start,
Nothing is impossible when truth and will combine,
A path to coexistence is what each must define.

Will it be easy no, but clearly it's a must,
It starts with creating empathy and a modicum of trust,
The alternative unthinkable, impossible to bear,
As misery and death the only certainty they'll share.
To make us reflect
Zywa Oct 2023
You did, you said: I.

How dare you! What do you think!


That you are something?
"Citizen: An American Lyric" - VII (2014, Claudia Rankine)

Collection "May the Might"
Zywa Oct 2023
You did, you said: you.

As if I just have to be --


obliging to you.
"Citizen: An American Lyric" - VII (2014, Claudia Rankine)

Collection "May the Might"
Next page