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Her journey to self love
She sat in front of her vanity mirror
Her reflection felt unfamiliar
The girl in it didn't look how she pictured
She felt like a visitor
In a body that should be familiar
Yet somehow she felt like a prisoner
Not knowing how to feel about the person in the mirror who reflected her
She wasn't sure if she liked what she saw
She wasn't sure whether to love or hate
Her skin that made people afraid
That her parents to her to appreciate
She just wanted to escape
A world that wouldn't hesitate
A world who wanted her to break
To succumb to the same fate
Of the other black people they made
Slowly fade away
In a slow and painful way
Back in the mirror she stared
At a girl who pretended she didn't care
At a life which for her was very much unfair
How the world used her as cautionary tale
To spread hatred to white children to beware
Of the black girl with her afro she wears
As a way to instill fear
In the children so they would grow up to do the same
Their legacy was generational hate
But when she really looked in the mirror
And began to silence the lingering whispers
She took a deep breath
And began to clear her head
She replaced the negative thoughts with the positive ones instead
And when she looked at her reflection
She finally understood without question
That she loved her blackness
She couldn't believe she let the world convince her that she was anything less than perfection
Copyright ©
Layla Riley-Hill
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