Let’s face it.
My birth place has left its trace
a fixed stamp on a face called race,
on this, a surface of brown color I carry
with me to stay till they burn me or bury.
When the choice of race or color is not with any
so why suffer or claim its supremacy over many,
Though the color of vital fluids that runs in us is same
yet we embrace the color of the sheath to suit a frame.
White is pure sure, Black is beauty, Brown wears the crown
are post-its we stick, if it gives us benefits;
White will slight, Black always lack, down with Brown
are labels we level, if we gain in our exploits.
Browned off, I put this in black and white,
tethered to a color of coat we are born with,
who we are is bound by the color that covers us,
Indeed skin color runs deep.
15-Jan-2018
Contest: What is White?
Sponsored by: Debbie Guzzi
Hamlet's story
is sad and gory.
From the start the outlook's bad.
The king, i.e. Hamlet's dad,
got bumped off by his loving brother,
who then had the nerve to wed Ham's mother.
One night Hamlet met his old man's ghost,
who said: "My son, while I here roast,
your uncle, who murdered me,
is having a rave-up for all to see."
He added, "I 've got a job for you, my lad,
"Do to 'im what he done to your dad."
But Hamlet never decisively acted,
by doubt and scruples got distracted.
So as he dithered
things slithered
till everyone got killed , alas,
'cept for Horatio and Fortinbras.
Goethe's Faust Part One
is all about this horny don,
who gets browned off by all that learning,
for all he's missed in life much yearning.
Mephisto, you might say the devil,
promises Faust a helluva revel,
on one (see the small print) slight condition,
After the party it's straight to perdition.
Then prancing witches chant "hubble bubble",
Faust goes and gets his gal into trouble.
(Faust may have knowed an awful lot,
but on birth control he weren't too hot).
Things get so bad it can't be true
They perk up a bit, though, in Faust Part Two