Did You Know You’re Brown?

Did you know you’re brown?

Not like me–

Not soft like milk, not like silk,

Not like water cradling pedals in a quiet, undisturbed pool.

Your skin–

earth toned, loud,

like coffee, without cream,

textured like wild grass,

scaly and real.

¿Mija, sabes que eres negra?

Your skin is a adorable way to the ancestors

your hair are woolen archive–

Full of secrets, of scarce instructions. 

You carry the frame of a Taino Warrior, 

rooted deep like ceiba trees. 

Mija, you are not of the colonizer–

your ears hum with the stories

of coquíes in the night,

of drums, of prayers. 

God molded you from sacred clay,

shaped you with love,

adorned you with purpose. 

You are not just beautiful–

you are divine. 

Mi negrita linda