1:46 a.m.

34: Colors

does color matter?

people are conceived of colors-

colors and characteristics passed down

to mark one as their ancestor's.

I have skin the color of my grandmother

and her mother before her.

the color of her fingertips picking fruit

to buy her children clothes.

I have rusty dirt eyes just clear enough

to pick out figures in front of me

(it's hard to see more than that though).

the long pink slates upon my fingers,

my grandmother reminds me,

are hers and only hers because

only a Guerrero could pass down that trait.

my heart a beautiful sunset

of purple, pink, and blue.

knowing love without boundaries,

that's what my mother taught me to do.

black coiled wires sitting on my head,

my tía calls beautiful and

"pelo de Cortez",

hair that links all of the girls in the family

knotted together by the head.

so don't you all see, I am my color.

yet they don't see the beauty in my color

and only see it for what it meant

over 50 years ago

maybe someone should hit them

with an updated dictionary.

because we are too tired

to march for our equality again.

correct me if I'm wrong,

but chicanos already did so.

but what hurts more,

is when someone who isn't my color

tries to be, tries to steal the color

I was blessed by God with.

when they try to tell my that

color doesn't matter,

and that anyone can use our traditions.

when someone tries

to deprive me of my culture

in an attempt to give me "equality".

but I refuse to give it up,

I see beauty in every shade of skin

and bone, hair, and heart.

and that's the way it should be.

so my answer is yes,

color matters.

and you can never tell me

that my color doesn't matter.

a/n: so I'm sorry that I died for like 3 years but I've just been extremely busy this semester with school, work, and girl scouts. But tomorrow is my last final, yay!! (honestly don't know how I'm survived finals up to this point) So don't worry, I'll be writing a lot during summer :)