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Color Me ____ .



Color Me _______.
“People of color?”
What do you mean?
If I could be “colored,”
Today, I’d be green
To become one with nature,
And bask in the breeze,
Then I could lynch who I pleased.

If I could be colored,
I’d paint myself red
With blood from the barrels of guns to the heads of my
Brothers who’ve perished
Their mothers who’ve cried
The guilt of my privilege—
A slow suicide.

But the world shall paint me black
Not my will, but I conform
And I take on all this blackness
Even though it’s not the norm
Even though my skin is brown
And my soul is colored blues
Go ahead.
Pick up the brush and stroke me like I am your muse.

People of color?
Unpack that phrase.
Tell me your troubles.
Show me your gaze.

Color me struggle.
Color me rape.
Color me hatred.
Color me fate.
Color me strength.
Color me love.
Color me fragments of
all the above.

People of color,
Where do you stand?
Take back your colors.
Take back your lands.
I am the red and the black and green
I am the fragments of colors unseen.

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