Beginning with the Color of My Skin
By: Allayah R. Carr, 3rd Place Division 3
50 shades of exquisite.
Caramel icing on your yellow cake.
Darker than 3 a.m.
Tar baby, a light bright.
Droplet of chocolate
drowning. I am the sista
running for the bus,
cussing the driver for not stopping.
I am every black woman before me.
Am I not good enough
for the black boys of Calhoun?
Am I not the bottled blondes
with thigh gaps and waterfall hair
dragging the ground like dead vines?
Am I not crafted? Oh the beauty
of God and his crock pot.
Cocoa, honey, espresso
sprinkled with essence of ebony.
I am wrapped in that silk cloak
of melanin I wear like liquid gold.
Keep your porcelain.
I was never broken.
We found our backbones wedged
in the towers of 39th and Lennox.
I am the Angelou’s and Morrison’s
phenomenally black and beloved.
Ode to the world’s most disrespected
tough as whipcords, messengers
of the black sun, hair that grows out
like the horizon. Beauty nestled
in the Nestle Nesquik of soul.
I am Sister Souljah,
throwing self-love like confetti.
Though nineteen, I carry the moon
in the grove of my spine. Every sway
of my hips pulls the tide closer.
Unfold the corners of midnight,
let that elegance shine through.
That haunting allure of blue black
telling truth through eyes like black opals,
that roll when they say I’m too dark.
Like those honest stars of ecstasy
I am a gem enlightened by my darkness.
About the Poet: My name is Allayah Carr and I am a student at the University of West Georgia. My major is journalism while my minor is creative writing, so as you can tell writing is sort of my passion. I scanned the web for interesting poetry contests to enter and this one stood out from all of the other ones because the theme was something that I take very seriously. One cannot write a poem about colorism and healing from said colorism without digging deep into themselves to pull out self-love. That’s what I did, smeared self-love over the page using words to form a pretty decent poem (if I must say so myself lol). This is the first poetry contest that I’ve won that isn’t affiliated with my school and it just gives me the motivation to continue doing what I love! So thank you colorismhealing.org for giving me the plateau I
needed and a great place to start!