Chastened Brown

My daddy understood

the richness of color and

shunned my oldest sister’s

whitewashed birth.

Who the white child belong to?

He asked in the delivery ward

shaming himself as the source.

Shadism colored my siblings’ perception.

An ideal hierarchy with light skin the pinnacle

after the paper bag test proved me cocoa dark

and of less value.

Burned biscuit defined what I could not

erase. When they tired of sidewalk chalk

and strike ’em out

their feigned indignation

made my smile give and give

unsuccessfully, reaching eyes

where ducts emptied silently.

Turned my cheek

on juvenile acceptance

and sibling rivalry

reminding myself that

After all, I’m the real thing

and it comforted me.