Paper Thin

A free verse, amongst each other, we too will one day be. I am your average everyday girl Who’s world has flipped upside-down Yes its progress, but with sluggish pace. My best friend and I both attend the same school But are separated by the officious signs Guiding each race, herding us like oblivious cattle. My hopes are high and yet walking through the halls Everyone is tense, edgy, and anxious like awaiting a battle. I am your average everyday girl Who lives in Little Rock, Mississippi Attends an integrated school With average everyday kids Who are discouraged to speak To the boys and girls of different skin. But I can see through the façade Of this peachy town, like paper thin. I am your average everyday girl Who has a family that loves me. Who has dreams of my own And believes in the god above me Who takes pride in her pie making And takes care of her little brother Who enjoys literature and poetry And likes to twist to tunes on the radio. I am your average everyday girl Yet to the others I am an alien. Though I confess the first few days I thought of them the same way Like they were this foreign colony of honey bees That plan to whip and lash their stinging words. This is what I had expected, that first day They were but somewhat peaceful and nervous creatures Just being part of an opportunity everybody equally deserves. Not everyone settles well with the strangers, or thinks like I do. But for the first week, granted there were some spiked nerves. Perhaps this isn’t the time, and maybe not the place But tell me, by my words, who do you imagine? what's my race? Can you guess? I am your average everyday girl And I often scoff at the sign that reads “Colored.” The irony is so blatant and nearly tangible; if I could eat it, It would be embarrassingly pungent like fresh garlic. The sign, it reads “colored” and yet the people who fix Those signs up in the first place, are individuals who Are tragically deceived to believe that because we are Of different shade of skin, this is how life is. Their black and white views of this world Have been taken far too literally if you ask me.