by Delilah Collazo
The Unknown
This brown-eyed soul
Has a heart dipped in gold
Not flashy jewelry
Not shiny bricks piled in Trump’s safe
But the gold buried in Africa’s crust
The kind only diligence can find
LOOK AT ME
Brown skin
Muddy eyes
Full lips
A nose
Wide enough to hold
The river water that flows up the Nile
Beautiful child, brown child
The world tells me
The two can never be related
That frame isn’t meant for forever
There’s a whole world to see
7 wonders to smile about
Hovering over my every move
Black-eyed and mad with red
My home has no welcome mat
At least not for the monster
Known as society
The red
The evil
The racist
The sexist
The womanizer
The poverty
They’re all the same
Steady playing the blame game
They don’t belong here
Run away from these intruders
Free and fast
Like the cheetah who hunts for dinner
I am here
I am me
I am you
Don’t you know
You could be me too
The 4:30am chill on the nape of your neck
The child doing cartwheels
In a field of dandelions
The potato your mother cuts into fries
The prayer you say
As you bow your head in church
I’m the student in class
I’m the student of life
Back straining
From the weight of my family
Belly aching
With starvation of success
Legs cramping
From the willingness to keep going
Brain swelling
With new knowledge of the world
Let your hair loose
Give that bandana you love a break
You think your hair isn’t beautiful enough,
But it’s those eyes that lead to a mind
That seems to mesmerize us all
Society says
You’re a woman
You’re a minority
You’ll never make it
But never is just a word
My vocabulary doesn’t recognize
So I do all that I have to do
Not for my mother
Not for you
But for ME
Because even in places of the unknown
The cheetah never goes hungry
