Gray

My favorite color is gray.
Why? Gray is so boring, so neutral, so.. dead. Right?
Gray is what happens when you mix the polar opposites of
Black..
and White.
When you mix oppression with freedom,
Love with hate,
Ambition with inhibition;
“It's all somewhere in the gray area”, people would say.
Generations with skins as dark as grapes
That are long fermented never got to enjoy the fruits of their own labor -
Instead, their Roots were picked before they were ripe
With the seeds being sowed in ground that was forever watered
With the sweat, blood and tears of an entire race.
Akin to how our pride and well-being was trampled on,
With soul we march to the front of the bus,
To the front of Washington D.C.'s National Mall,
To the front of the Oval Office,
To the front of American Society.
We've gone from hanging like apples from Satan's Forbidden Tree
To hanging Jesse Owens' Gold Medals around all of our necks,
Not running away from a troubled past
But racing towards a brighter future.
So though the skies might be gray,
You best believe that billions of stars shone on dark nights
That eventually gave way to sunny days.
Somewhere in between a history that has taught us
To pave our own way through a seemingly new frontier
And an untold tomorrow that is the first day of the rest of our lives,
We are the middle ground,
The gray area -
We are my favorite reason to wake up everyday
With a smile made of shining white teeth
And Black blood running through my veins.
We are my favorite generation
Between what seemed to be a black hole that destroyed everything we held sacred
And the white light that is our sanctuary.
We are my favorite color -
With black skin, we white-out the wrongs of our past
To make for an unprecedented future in which the best is yet to come.
It is in this mixture of opposites
That we define ourselves as the very best that we can possibly be.

Guide that inspired this poem: 

Comments

saleemy

I like the rhythm of your words, as well as the juxtaposition between black and white :)

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