This Is Us
Black Skin
i hate those stories
the ones
where women recall
how they once hated
the shade
of their deep dark skin
the same stories
that appear in
Oprah’s documentaries
and characterize
the dark-skinned women
across her network
whenever i hear them
i never understand
how ugly words
can form on the lips
of such beautiful women
i hate hearing them
because
they dig up
old memories
i buried
memories
of when
i wanted to
live outside
of my own skin
it wasn’t my choice
it was
the narrow
beauty perceptions
that are placed
on young Black girls
Black
African
booty
scratcher
girls like me
why you so dark? he asked me
he compared
my skin
to the Black Air Force Ones
inside my gym bag
he knew
his words
were ugly
but i don’t think
he knew
they weren’t his
they’d been
passed down
from the mouths
of former owners of Black bodies
i later vomited up his words
along with the ones
i fed myself
and i finally saw
the richness
the beauty
of my skin
a few years later
i opened an email from my principal
asking which novel
i planned to teach
my 6th graders
i remembered one student
the girl
whose skin
was a deep, dark mahogany
and how she’d begun digesting
those same ugly words
about her skin
i emailed her back
48 copies of The Skin I’m In
by Sharon G. Flake
for both classes, please
we read that book
and when we reached
the last page
my beautiful student cried
perhaps she’d
begun vomiting up
the ugly words
fed to her, too
she’s a young adult now
and maybe
just maybe
she didn’t go on to
tell those stories
the ones
where women recall
how they once hated
the shade
of their deep dark skin
