Tell Me a Story | ✓

The Moment I Realized: A Poem

The moment I realized

That my skin wasn't black

Was the moment

Things began to make sense.

The moment I realized

My skin color

Automatically made me

A better person than

My bi-racial best friend,

Was the moment

I couldn't stand being

In the presence of

My other "friends," –

The friends that only wanted

To play with someone like them;

Someone with a skin tone

That reflected the sun

And its unforgiving rays

Of clarity –

And not with someone

Whose skin shown the same hue

As the chocolate bar

He purchased

At the local grocer.

"It's fine,"

My friend said to me,

Flicking his hand

Like the beasts' racial comments

Were only pesky flies

That flew inevitably

Into the everyday life

Of his.

"It happens."

"It shouldn't,"

I replied,

My childlike voice growing

In decibels as the useless rage

Built inside my tiny body.

"But it does."

And that was that.

The moment I realized

My best friend suffered

Different cruelties

The world had to give,

Was the moment I realized

That I would never forgive

Society for hurting him

In a way that

I would never

Understand.