I am a person of color
with a transparent soul
skin colored white
by powers beyond my control
I want to scrape my race
off my conscience with my fingernails
Scrape it off and lay myself bare.
Transparent soul that I am...
People of the earth, my ancestors
never owned another human being,
my ancestors hoed potatoes in Ireland,
made shoes in Norway,
and mined coal in Pennsylvania.
Damned Yankees every one of them.

Call me naive
but I see all people
as one people:
human.

Simply human
I am too white to walk safely
on the South Side of Chicago
too white to be a "sister" or a "brother"
to people of melanin complexion.
But I am not too white to be the mother of a mixed-race child.
Blend salt and pepper to Spices;
blur black and white to multi-hues

children -

born to love

taught to hate.

Anything is possible in this world

...even peace...