Lightskin

Untitled | Madeline Cortez | Acrylic

Lightskin by Vivian Dmochowksi

“I wish I was tan all year round like you.”

She said to me, 

Did she really want to be “tan”?

Not really.

She wanted to be sunkissed 

Like all her other friends 

She wanted to feel pretty

But did she understand what it’s like  

To be tan and not be pretty? 

Not be accepted?

Too black for the white kids 

Too white for the black 

Because I would never understand 

What it’s like to be a “real black person”

I was lightskin, not black.

It made me uncomfortable

It’s what I am, but It felt odd to me

It made me feel like an outsider 

She had no idea how jealous I was 

Of her pale skin, her blonde hair

She wanted to feel pretty, even though she was 

But at least she fit in somewhere