The Color Of My Skin Poem by Leonard Dabydeen

I may bring to your attention
this posted affirmation
through the color of my skin:
that I am what I am.
Prejudice is an art form
I cannot share
nor add to my portfolio;
I am the color you think I am,
or must be,
as you are the paint
freckled by heartlessness
or heat from your scaled mind.
Flowers in your garden
are more beautiful
when they capture the
radiance of the heavens,
just like the rainbow.
So let me be me,
as I let you be you;
together in time
our color will never become
a shameful part of our self.
**March 21,2010: UN International Day for the
Elimination of Racism