Liberty and Justice for A L L

All. You and me.

Now when we say this is it what we truly mean?

All of a group or all of a nation?

Does my melanin-enriched skin,

My wooly hair,

My blood from another land fit this declaration,

Or am I simply too different?

 

The stars of the banner do not seem to wave for me

Though the blood of my own bleed red, white, and blue

Their pigmentation seem to be too black for you

I declare to myself…

Maybe they weren’t strong enough

Brave enough

To be accepted into the land of the free

But soon it occurred to me that they just weren’t

White enough.

 

White.

It seems as though I am an island in the middle of the White Sea

The island of my parents

The island of my family

The island of my people.

 

The sea attempts to wash away this island claiming

Too much culture

Too much language

Too much security.

 

This island.

But this island is not everything I am meant to be.

I am more than this island of isolation

I am more than this hair of coils, knots, and kinks

I am more than this skin blessed by the rays of the sun.

 

I am me

I am the all

Searching for that promise of

Liberty and Justice.