Flesh Tone

I grew up the white elephant among naysayers

with my head down and her name resting softly on my lips.

My hazel eyes watched as the judgmental congregated,

eagerly waiting to brand another scarlet letter on the next Hooker's green dress.

How dare an unworthy guest bow to pray among their burnt umber pews and dirty champagne walls!

Paynes gray and silent, filled with a 'damned desire', I hid in my closet writing love letters to her sun-kissed hair and sky blue eyes.

She was the color of freedom.

An indigo child with a spirit as vast and untamed as the ocean,

her skin haunted my adolescent thoughts and threatened to unhinge every door that shut me deep inside of myself.

Our first kiss painted the air in chakra colors and I meditated on every hue of her aura.

That was the moment I learned,

God is a flesh tone.