BLACKNESS CAN'T BE WISHED AWAY

 


Blackness is not something

You wake up one morning,

Black sister, and just wish away.

Blackness lies deep beyond reach,

Hard for corrosive cream to bleach.

 

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the rest you find in the dark serene night;

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the smoothness a car gets from a tarmac while in flight;

 

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s reverence perceived in a sombre priestly gown;

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s justice seen in solemn law by one long trodden down;

 

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the warmth in winter obtained from burning coal;

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the steely beauty seen in an ebony totem-pole;

 

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the soulful strains heard in a blackbird’s song;

Blackness can’t be wished away –

It’s the sensitivity of a black box as the plane goes along …

 

Blackness is not something

You wake up one morning,

Black brother, and just wish away.

Fry your hair, cut your nose and bleach your skin –

All wasted effort. Blackness lies deep in your vein!

 

Think of things to move the black race forward

And avoid things that would paint us as being wayward.

 

My black siblings, God had a great plan colouring us black

And this very obvious fact we must constantly mark –

If He had wished, He could’ve coloured us something else.

So your blackness can’t be wished away;

Beyond your mortality it would stay!

 

{THE VERSE IS TAKEN FROM MY COLLECTION, "COLOURS (OF LIFE, LOVE AND FAITH)".}

 

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