Shades of Black

Black.

It's the color of my skin.

Describes my hue, my melanin.

It's the color of the inside of my lids when I sleep.

It's the description of the fading of consciousness to where I keep

The vivid imaginations of my dreams.

It describes the condition of my heart when it's tainted

With the dark inclinations hat would make others faint it

Describes my soul when I've lost my glow

It's my thoughts when I wish to destroy

All that may grow

If I allow the light to seep in and heal

What's been broken, discarded and unwilling to feel

Black is the void that sucks in my soul

As the collapse of intelligence takes it's toll

It's sight less. It's grim. It's absence. It's dim.

It's the opposite of the light that ignorance bathes in.

It's often associated with death, though unfair

It beckons those banished to deep despair

But without it what exactly would that inspire

Only in darkness do I give in to desire

It allows a reprieve from prying eyes

Judgment and gossip from lips spewing lies

If it weren't for the dark times that befall us all

How could we appreciate the big and the small

Things that add up to the sum total of this life

That we're bearing

The skin that we're wearing

The air we breathe in and dispell to survive

If it were easy would we appreciate being alive?

Black is beautiful. Black is proud.

Black is meant to be celebrated out loud.

Black has been enslaved. Black has been in the grave

Black has been downtrodden. Black has not always been saved

Black has risen up and taken trauma and pain

Erected institutions and foundations have lain

Black birthed civilations, been the bedrock of creation

Black is loyalty, royalty, defies any station

Black takes what it needs and holds back what it must

Black doesn't always have the luxury of trust

But Black is survival. Black has no rival.

Black is elegance and eloquence, without testimony or trial

Black is intelligence. Black is invention.

Black does not cower. Black has no convention

Black is the blueprint, forges it's own path forward

Black always has a grander purpose it's moving toward

Black is the renaissance, where ideas birth pure art

Beats and souls collide as music steals your heart

Black is media empires. Black had made its own land

Black has built studios from the ground with it's hands

Black is not just inspiration - it's aspiration too

Black is diverse and most willing to include

Black is my heritage. My beautiful family

The source of my brilliance and yes my insanity

Black has given me life. Black has given me hope

Black has raised me to praise He who helps me to cope

I'm not a prideful person, but in Black I take pride

I couldn't contain my love for Black inside if I tried

When Black is invested in, it always pays back

God, how wonderful a gift it truly is to be young, gifted, and

Black.