I'm Sorry

I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to drag you

From Africa's shores.

I didn't want

To bind you

And brand you

And break you

And buy you

Like less than an animal.

I didn't intend

For your children

To be lost from you

For your land

To be taken from you

For your spirits 

To be ripped from you.

I'm sorry.

I didn't want

To push you away

I didn't want

To divide a nation

Or the human race.

I didn't mean

To make you lower

Smaller

Dirtier

Less.

I didn't intend

For you to be trampled on.

I'm sorry.

 I didn't mean to beat your brothers

I didn't want to shoot your fathers

I didn't intend for your mothers to be jailed.

But I guess I did

Because I can feel the crimes of my skin

Weighing on my fair flesh

And I'm sorry.

I didn't know

When I was younger

That white had done such things to black.

I didn't know

When I was smaller

That your shade mattered at all.

I didn't know

When I was shorter

That I should feel guilty for what my color's done to yours.

It's funny how getting taller

Warps your vision

And I'm sorry.

I didn't want

For the world to get to this.

I didn't want

For color to matter.

I didn't want

To feel this divide.

I didn't succeed.

And I'm sorry.

We can't forget 

The past.

We can't forget

What one man

Has done to another,

When one man

Has beat

Or shot

Or jailed

Another.

But we can forget

The colors of the skin.

We can forget

The divide.

There will never be a world

Of black goodness

And white evil,

White purity

And black filth.

But there always was a world

Of men and women of all shades

Being bad or good regardless of color.

There will be good men.

There will be evil men.

And none of it will depend on the color of their skin.

But the world won't always see it that way.

And for that,

I'm sorry.