Loose me to a white world canvas
Gather up the coloring
for the portrait of change
Watch me splatter this regal across the diaspora Introduce a standard of beauty
That always was
Normalize a culture of being
at liberty to liven up this place
No longer blind to privilege
I belong here
Long before you didn’t notice
Stage me for the strength in my legs For the life in my victory lap
The hope in my heavy leaden eyes
That my body language reaches
cross cultural barriers
That I am spotlight
in this war house
For all we wanted
Was to click our heels
be a land of sweet home
Less artifact of hostile environment Convince a world that I am not void of that spark
That creates depth and dimension Visible to the naked eye
Tell me you see me
In my glory
Beyond my pigment
Illuminate the weapon of grace I carry on my battlefield
For all we wanted was a choice to be an elegant statement Amidst the silencing
A dance of Jubilee
In the resistance
A bright morning sun
Trespassing the color lines For all we wanted
Was to take a fresh breath in polluted air
To Linger
To smile for the world
Not just for the camera
For independence to be photogenic
Develop a positive relationship
between the Black and white negative
Between the privilege and the powerful
The happy and the heartbroken
For all we wanted was
To be free from want
Of what was already ours
To be possible
To be young
To capture the strength of woman
Unbound
Disguise heaven in a blue dress
To be what our nature demands
For our soul to come thru the picture
speak more than a thousands of words
But millions of stories
To simply,
document a gorgeous distraction
In a world of unpretty
Peace is a National Spoken Word Artist and Writer-in-Residence for InsideOut Literary Arts.
Part of our 2024 Fiction Issue.
