Born This Way
I was born black,
and I liked myself from the start
Babies don’t know
any other way to be
They give their love to everybody free,
it don’t matter the race or ethnicity
Infants are color blind —
that’s just how they are ... that’s just the way they see
I was born with a midnight hue
And at age three,
the mirror didn’t tell me
to look at myself differently
Then at age ten,
when I picked up my first pool stick,
I got hustle taught ... made aware that
I was born behind the black eight ball
Did learn early on in the game —
that the white cue ball is obligated
to keep hitting me
Smacking me around,
and putting me in the side pocket
Although, I’m quite sure I’ve been put
in a few people’s back pocket
I was born dark as charcoal
Found out as a teen,
lighter fluid got a thing for me
Strike the wrong colored match,
and you’ll find out
bigoted people don’t look at you too kindly
They will fire up your grill,
and you’ll get taught a twenty-something life lesson:
Ebony binoculars taking a view
from an an ivory tower, showing you
that if looks could kill ...
As a man,
when it came time for me
to be born again
I then was given wisdom to understand,
that some are born
to live in poverty of ignorance
When they were growing up
and looked in the mirror,
they saw a face reflecting the color of hate
Not being able to see your true self
is such a horrible fate
Being invisible to yourself
is like being a living ghost,
having the form of the dead
Toe to head, nothing of substance is seen ...
So they cover themselves with a white sheet,
and let their thoughts roam in abandoned spaces darkly
Because they’ve come to accept
that they were born this way
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2017
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