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An Ode to the Black Body

Our blackness has been breached.

Shanisha Branch
Feb 06, 2017
Virginia Wesleyan College
29
An Ode to the Black Body
Tx.State

Black body burdened by broken promises and bitter fortune

We look in the mirror and see with closed eye

we think but don't speak and say what we don't mean

A black body is what stares back at us.

It's Been Taken

Stripped of every thing that once was

The beauty of it all

The rich pigment

The stereotypes that still have to fall.

We say things like "black is beautiful"

But we don't own it. This statement is more like an omen

Statements like these remind us that our blackness has been breached

Better yet bleached

Blotted out of history

Blank pages greet it

Sterilized and forgotten.

We welcome our black bodies with a love that is confession

We confess our strength

Our knowledge

Our tenacity

And our audacity to keep going

And keep standing and keep loving on this black body.

Coffee, chestnut, chocolate, onyx, cocoa, smoke

Black and brown skins mingled together in a melody of hymns

Until the song is sung freely.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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