Dark Skin

MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com.au/

DARK SKIN

It always seemed so odd to me.......white people had a plan

To get rid of their pallid skin and get a healthy tan.

No-one actually said out loud 'Dark skin is more appealing',

And yet the very fact we tanned was really quite revealing.

When I was first in Africa and one of 'the master race'

(For it was the 1950s and everyone 'knew their place'!)

I used to smother myself with oil and end up ruby red

And then I'd peel and blister and wish that I were dead!

The Africans had unblemished skin, and tans that were divine,

Yet I still felt superior in the white skin that was mine!

Skin-cancer was unknown to us; we laid out in the sun

And boiled ourselves like lobsters until we were nicely 'done'.

And then we'd suffer agonies as we tossed and turned at night.

Yet still we felt superior because our skins were white.

Now times have changed for the better; we no longer look at skin!

We're more inclined to judge a person by the 'man' within.

We think black people fortunate because of natural selection;

Their skins are absolutely right for giving them protection.

The dancer in the pose above has skin like velvet honey.

She can cope, and I cannot, with a climate that is sunny.

*

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FENCES

Fences, once so firm and stout,

Keeping in and keeping out,

Fences, once so tall and strong,

Holding things where they belong,

They will crumble, they will rust,

They will fall into the dust.

Every human edifice

Will end like this, will end like this.

*