If We Were Blind
If we were blind
would you still put me in chains?
Would you tie my hands
like my mother did my braids?
If we were blind
night would be our day.
Colored
would never be my name.
Freedom would’ve never been a right.
A mockingbird would’ve never had to die.
Everything is beautiful.
To touch
my curls swirling up.
To feel
Grandma’s sweet potatoes
melt into blood.
A textured love.
Yet, here I step in your grainy hate.
From my toes to my hair
washed up from thousands of years.
Scrapping away what our mother bestowed upon me.
Wishing this water was not my ancestors’ sea.
Here, I’m a slave to those who save the day.
Those who still wait
to throw me away.
Here, we claim colorblind, but never blind.
Chained to cursed sight.
Concealing the brownest eye.