Black History Month Tribute pt. 1

Every year during Black History Month I reflect: on well-known people, the forgotten heroes, the unsung heroes. I reflect on my own experiences, the experiences pasted down from my elders, and I ask myself what does it mean to be Black?  How has it changed me? This year it's a three part tale...

I. Enslaved

I was born color-blind;

I came out of the womb that way…

This rainbow of color was forced upon my mind

Not an instant process, but slowly over time.

The girl in my class—

               The one I saw everyday

I don’t know what possessed her,

I don’t know what suddenly changed!

But she submerged my head in the sea of colors

Their brightness blinding my blinded eyes

And I drowned somewhere beneath its colored tide

Rolled and churned, swept out to sea

The weight of blackness entangled me.

nigger shackled my legs, my arms…

--It’s impossible to move.

And there in the distance,

Schools of fish simply staring at me…

They spit  the salt I’m forced to inhale

While I choke on false assumptions

There’s a fire in my lungs...

But I’m tangled and mangled,

Shackled and shamed

Sinking further and further beneath the wave.