Prophecy
By: Aisha Khan, 3rd Place Youth Poetry Division
she awoke with the desire
to slaughter the heritage
that nested within her a
conflict that bloomed
with every glance at a mirror;
her skin had been deemed
a shade too drab for the night,
yet a tint too pale for the
moon.
thus she clutched onto
the stars that lingered,
until they no longer did;
for they too had realized
that she was merely an ugly
conundrum.
light skin, dark soul—
she was slowly vanishing
within the folds of the
phenomenon
that was her complex
complexion.
she had come to memorize the
names that scraped her skin;
skunk, caramel, halfro
but the one she held dearest
could not escape
her lips.
too white to be black
too black to be white
where was the line?
perhaps she was the line;
the perfect inequality of
grime and gale
frost and flare
—though where she was drawn,
she knew not.
but in that ambiguity
she found beauty–
for her skin spoke louder
than she.
it inhabited scars
of a half that
bled, ached, grieved still
and bore them proudly.
a chameleon tethered to
two pickets,
she never could tear
away from one
without marring the
other.
but she need not
tear away, for
escaping herself
would harm,
embracing herself
would heal.
About the Poet: Aisha is a freshman in high school from the small town of Lake Ridge, Virginia. She is the daughter of a Pakistani immigrant and is learning to appreciate her heritage through literature. Aisha hopes to learn her way around the world through poetry, and grow as both a writer and an inspirer.