Every Kiss Begins with a K

They say every kiss begins with a k. But every kiss begins with a look.

                They looked at each other and fell in love with everything the New World had to offer. Her bruised brown hand in his. And together they carried their child and conceived her into the home of the brave. They taught her the values of honesty and of being true to oneself. They taught her to love her chocolate skin, even when others didn’t. They picked her up whenever she fell, and she fell down a lot. They carried her weight every day and she let them.

Every look ended with a kiss.

                Her days of trouble are those she regrets the most. Days she would shut herself in her room, blaming them for her skin because none of the boys wanted to love her. They had called her “dirty.” She could not look at them and they could not look at her. They thought they had failed her, had made the worst mistake possible but it was she who was mistaken.

Every kiss ended with a breath of hot air.

                A day came when she had to say goodbye to her father- a true man. A day came when she had to say goodbye to her mother- her rock. All the memories run around in her dreams like she ran around in their little backyard, confused at the strange looks she got from the pale-faced children. Oblivious to the narrowed eyes aimed at her parents, a blackening soul in the hearts of the beholders. A day will come when she will see them again, in a place where strange looks and narrowed eyes do not exist.

Because every breath of hot air ended with her.