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Poetry On Odyssey: Black Enigma

The following poem is about ridicule that some black people have received from others for their behavior or personality.

Nakita Kira Tsunami
Apr 24, 2019
Illinois State University
31
Poetry On Odyssey: Black Enigma
Lupita Nyong'o

Black

has many implications

Many definitions

It is a shade

It is a color

It is a descriptive word

That also defines a race

It is the word

used to described

changes

in pigmentation

person to person

It is a word

depict an image in one's mind

You say black

I think the night

That pitch blackness

Of a fresh night sky

Full of stars

Enveloped by moon light

You say black

I think about

That hidden spot

In everyone's soul

Holding precious secrets

And unknown sadness

I think

beautiful chocolate skin

That spreads across lands

Islands

Continents

I think of my people

But some of my people

Aren't seeing

What I'm seeing

They're minds

Are caught up

They see me

And don't see my dark skin

They see

White

White hair

White clothes

White talk

White tendencies

They don't see me

Or my blackness

Our blackness

They see my actions

My interests

My thoughts

But not as

Me

Rather

They protest me

Meet me with quarrels

and quarries

of Why do you act white?

Why don't you act black?

hm...

I'm not sure

What they mean

I wake up every morning

And I see black staring back at me

I walk to class and can ONLY

See how different I am

From Everyone

I wish to feel a connection

With the those more like me

Instead I'm estranged from even them

My people

So I'm not Black

By their definition

So there's still a them

And there's a me

So I'll continue

roaming the campus

A Black Enigma

Belonging nowhere

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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