bleach it out

 Dorothy Summers

 

it’s 1962 and color is a right of passage

 

it wasn’t that she wanted

to be white.

she was just ashamed

to be black.

her teacher favors

girls who are yellow.

 

so she thought

that if she could be lighter,

her life would change.

 

so for weeks,

she rubs

the cream into her face.

it burns as it mixes

with summer sweat.

 

but she endures

and rubs her face gingerly,

thinking to herself,

   it will be lighter tomorrow.

tomorrow arrives, and the sun’s luster

shows moons on her cheeks.

but on the forehead,

around eyes

that stare at the sides

of her face, her skin

above the upper lip,

   and her chin…

      the chocolate stain

         remains.

 


Dorothy Summers studied poetry at IUPUI in Indianapolis.  Formerly she worked as a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army and as an editorial assistant.  She has published poetry in Flying Island and news and feature stories in national Army magazines and in newspapers in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.

 

 

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