The Dark Girl's Black Magic

Some days I wake up Brush my teeth with anxiety And braid my hair with pain There are days I chafe at my dark skin As insults burn holes in my heart as I walk in The school corridors A sense of alienation hammering into me I carry anguish on my shoulders I feel like my soul is being crushed by boulders Boulders of my thoughts and your words Standing in front of the mirror I scratch my skin As the sin of me being dark-skinned weighs me down You pointed at me and laughed As I stood there staring at the ground Waiting for the earth to split open and swallow me whole Aunty tells me that I am pretty for a dark-skinned girl That I have nice hair and that almost compensates for the color of my skin No, I don’t want your almost compliments I suddenly forget how to breathe as it slowly dawns on me That dark is an atrocity I am almost convinced that the universe Is making me pay for all my sins My world gyrated the day I told myself I can never be enough, not in this skin One day I thought I finally found A solution to my problem White semi-liquid substance encapsulated in a bottle My hopes and dreams died As I frantically slapped it on my face And rubbed it in until my skin was sore I screamed I screamed in rage As I looked at the bottled in duplicity You see melanin is only pretty When it comes in tiny amounts That day the oceans collided and my cries were futile But thank god it didn’t work My skin is not a painting open to your criticisms I am not a doll sitting by the window waiting to be admired by strangers you see I was taught that dark skin didn’t deserve to be loved that I could never love myself I blame the unrealistic beauty standards set For young girls and boys The perfect hourglass figure The toned muscles The plump lips The doe-eyes And the fair skin And of course, just the right amount of curves Stop this We are going to claim our identities back We are going to truly find peace in ourselves So to all those who scratch their skin And try to bleach it I say don’t Jettison those godforsaken creams Do not pay heed to what anyone says Stand up for yourself and don’t you drown in dismay For dark is magic Dark is beautiful Dark is elegant Dark is powerful Dark is the pupil which sees the world Stars etched into the crevasses of your mind And embedded in your arteries You are made of stardust My love, you were born from a magnificent supernova Your skin is as wonderful as the limitless dark depth of the universe Gold spills from your mouth There is so much more to you than just your skin And don’t you cry, o’ moonchild You have magic running through your veins Feeling beautiful is loving your thoughts your mind and your soul listen not to those who tell you that you aren’t enough for you are a child of the dark cosmos you are more than enough