This is a distress call
To the seeding soul beyond the color
Run, they have caught the scent
Of hues that make you smaller

Smaller in competence, in potential they
Chastised on how you bleed brown
The melanocytes that cluster beneath your skin
Suffers their admonishment, as does your breakdown

Cackling with privilege, they denigrate
Whilst your skin seems to grow in its darkness
Your heart wrenches a little tighter
Galling at the repressed cage that constricts your rage

No, don’t gall but chafe at the brown
The earth you wear on your skin
As a robe of ineffable strength
With the power of the mellifluous violin

There will always be that strength
The nefarious one that pulls you back to the soil
But remember you are iridescent
A masterpiece the crisp color of your farming fathers’ toil

It is your talisman, your passport
To redolence and panacea
You walk as a memoir
Of diligent cultivators of Asia

An identity threatened by unsolicited claims
Prejudicial calls meant to break you
Remember it is an epoch
In the epic of how you grew.